And Then There Were None
by kaIshekk
Summary: A deserted island, ten little wooden monkeys, nine regulars. One by one, they are killed. Warning: Character death. Obviously.
1. Chapter 1

**And Then There Were None**

Summary: A deserted island, ten little wooden monkeys, nine regulars. One by one, they are killed. Warning: Character death. (Obviously.)

Disclaimer: I do not own PoT. Also, the title and the poem are borrowed from Agatha Christie, one of my favorite authors.

* * *

_Ten little Indians went out to dine; one choked his little self and then there were Nine._

_Nine little Indians sat up very late; one overslept himself and then there were Eight._

_Eight little Indians traveling in Devon; one said he'd stay there and then there were Seven._

_Seven little Indians chopping up sticks; one chopped his own self in halves and then there were Six._

_Six little Indians playing with a hive; a bumblebee stung one and then there were Five._

_Five little Indians going in for law; one got into Chancery and then there were Four._

_Four little Indians going out to sea; a red herring swallowed one and then there were Three._

_Three little Indians walking in the Zoo; a big bear hugged one and then there were Two._

_Two little Indians sitting in the sun; one got frizzled up and then there was One._

_One little Indian left all alone; he went out and hanged himself and then there were none._

-Before the trip-

It was one of those typical summer days, and the Seigaku tennis club locker room was unusually peaceful. Fuji, for once in his fourteen years of life, did not attempt to set traps on the clubroom door, the club loudmouth Momo was uncharacteristically quiet because he was so busy eating, and the hyperactive Eiji was nowhere to be seen. However, the exact moment his teammates were thanking God for such a nice, tranquil afternoon, Eiji chose to break the rare silence by flinging open the door and running in, shouting as if he had made some kind of important discovery, like Christopher Columbus who discovered America.

"Guys, guess what I discovered? A triangle has three sides!"

Everyone sweatdropped in unison, "Shouldn't you have discovered this, like, ten years ago?" The regulars have been friendly with each other for quite some time and, even though they couldn't all play in synchro like the Golden Pair, they already mastered sweatdropping in synchro.

"You are fifteen, senpai," Ryoma smirked from his corner.

Eiji cheerfully leapt on top of Ryoma and continued, "Nah, of course I was kidding. What I really discovered was that we have an extra long spring vacation! Why don't we all go somewhere together?"

"Good idea," Fuji smiled.

Momo's face glowed with enthusiasm. "Yeah, we've never all stayed out together before, except that time we went to training camp. But training camp was so tiring that we hardly had any fun… so yeah! Let's go somewhere together and stay the night."

"Let's go to the beach," Eiji, who had the mental age of a six-year-old, cried happily.

"No, let's go to Disneyland!" Momo, who also had the mental age of a six-year-old, cried happily.

"Let's go to Hawaii," Ryoma suggested. Echizen Ryoma had the mental age of a normal twelve-year-old, yes, but it didn't mean that hanging out with Momo too much wouldn't affect his brain a little.

"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly.

"But if we go hiking, we might have accidents," Oishi frowned in worry. "We might drown at the beach, we might fall off the roller coaster in Disney Land, and if we go to Hawaii, the plane might crash." As if going to Hawaii was really an option.

"Oishi, you think too much," Eiji pouted.

"Can't we just stay in Tokyo? I'm sure there are some pretty nice places in Tokyo," Oishi said meekly.

"That's boring," Eiji pouted again.

"We may also have accidents in Tokyo anyway, for example, we may crash into a car, get trapped in a burning building or die in an earthquake," Fuji countered with his sadistic smile. "Besides, if you insist on staying in Tokyo, I can guarantee that you will definitely have an accident."

Oishi knew better than to cross Fuji, so he shut up.

"Then it's all decided. Disneyland it is!" Momo concluded, "Let's go!"

"Let's go? Now?" Ryoma rolled his eyes, "No, I wanna go to Hawaii."

"Hawaii's too far away." Eiji persisted, "I want to go to the beach."

"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly.

Ryoma said, aggravated, "There are both mountains and beaches in Hawaii. Why don't we go to Hawaii?"

The soft-spoken Kawamura meekly suggested from aside, "Why don't we visit some hot springs?"

"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly.

Eiji threw a temper tantrum, rolling on the floor, "Nya, I wanna go to the beach!"

"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly.

Momo stared, "Buchou, you shouldn't keep saying the same sentence. Can't you say something else?"

"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly. "We should go hiking. We should go hiking. We should go hihihihihihihi-"

"WAAAAAH! Buchou is like the CD stuck in a broken CD player. We must fix him!" Momo and Eiji screamed and poured Ryoma's Ponta over Tezuka's head to see if it would help. It didn't.

Oishi felt a terrible stomachache coming up. Whereas everyone was making suggestions and having the time of their lives, they forgot that Oishi was the one who must find hotel rooms, get insurance and manage all the trivial affairs before the vacation. Just thinking about it made Oishi tired. He felt so tired that he wanted to jump into a river and drown himself.

As if he could read Oishi's mind, Momo suddenly declared, "Don't worry, Oishi-senpai, I will be responsible for everything. Even the insurance."

"But…" Oishi stuttered, deciding that Momo had probably watched too much TV at midnight and become more hotheaded than he already was.

"Of course. And I'm also gonna help Momo!" Eiji said.

Oishi felt even more worried than before. How could he trust these two? But then he didn't really have a choice.

That was why the two notorious troublemakers came screaming into the locker room three days later.

"We've decided. We are going to a deserted island!" Eiji declared.

"Even though it's not as good as Disneyland, there is still a good beach," Momo said excitedly, "and they both start with D and end with 'land'." Not that it mattered.

Tezuka, who cared about hiking only, asked solemnly, "Will there be mountains?"

"It's a small island, so probably-" Eiji began, but quickly added as he saw the disappointment on Tezuka's face, "-there will be a Chinese garden, so there will probably be a fake stone mountain like they do in most Chinese gardens."

Ryoma, practical as always, asked, "Why will there be a Chinese garden on a deserted island?"

"They borrowed from Atobe," Fuji piped up. "His family owns a pretty big mansion there. They even have a bamboo forest."

"Yes. We can enjoy the peace and quiet of a deserted island, but at the same time we don't need to worry about making fires for cooking or sleeping in the wild with creepy bugs. Isn't that great? There're even swimming pools and tennis courts," Momo said, looking proud of his achievement.

Oishi did not think that it was so great, and he was quite convinced that they would have no peace or quiet on the island. So many things could happen at a beach -they could be stung by jellyfish, sunburned, or swept away by giant tsunamis- and even if nothing happened, he was sure that his teammates would burn down the house or rip the roof apart. How could he explain that to Atobe?

Tezuka muttered, rather sadly, "No mountains?"

"Why don't we go to Hawaii if we have to go to an island anyway? I'm positive that Atobe has at least one house there," Ryoma suggested, also sadly.

"I still want to try hot springs," Kawamura added sadly.

Kaidoh wondered, "Fshuu… Since when have we been so friendly with Atobe?"

"Since I was six, my dear. After all, you are the most important person in my life," Inui spoke.

"That wasn't your line, Inui-senpai, and it doesn't make sense," Ryoma sweatdropped.

"One, two, three, YAAY!" Tezuka said.

"That wasn't your line either, buchou!" Ryoma cried in alarm.

Watching his ridiculous teammates, Oishi could only sigh to himself. He could foresee the trouble coming in the following week.

When it came to trouble Oishi had a pretty good imagination. Yet he did not foresee that there would be more trouble in the following week than he could ever imagine.

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading! This might be very long, so please let me know if I should finish it. Reviews are very welcome, and so are guesses on the death order. Guesses on the murderer's identity are also very welcome, though I will be very depressed if you already get it right in the first chapter before anyone has died yet… 


	2. Chapter 2

-Sunday-

Oishi, seated on the speedboat heading towards their destination, was screaming his head off. The sky was blue, the ocean was beautiful, the weather was nice, but he was screaming his head off nevertheless, because he was so frustrated. It's not like he ever cared about the weather anyway.

"But this isn't right! We can't stay for a week on a deserted island with no telephone or any means to contact with the mainland. What if someone gets sick? What if someone is injured? What if we blow up the house? What if…"

"Come on, stop worrying already," Eiji, his doubles partner, said reassuringly as he leaned lazily on the boat guardrails. "It's not like we are six-year-olds or anything. We won't have any accidents."

"You promise?"

"I pro…AAAH!" Eiji toppled over the rails and fell into the water before he could even finish his sentence.

For a few seconds, Oishi stared blankly at where his partner just disappeared and resumed his whining. "But I still think that this is crazy! And Fuji, why did you bring a dog?"

"Why not?" Fuji countered, looking completely innocent, "Look, isn't Fujiko cute? I think she likes you."

The small schnauzer at Fuji's feet looked up at Oishi hopefully, as if she was expecting Oishi to feed her or maybe she thought that Oishi was food.

"Who in their right mind would ever name their dog Fujiko…" Oishi sighed, reflecting sadly that he would never understand Fuji.

Still, Fuji and Fujiko wasn't really the strangest scene on the crowded boat.

"Cluck, cluck, cluck," clucked Tezuka's chicken.

"Buchou, is this one the chicken you once said you had named Atobe? He's so cute," Momo cried, scooping the chicken up into his arms, getting pecked all over in the process, but he didn't seem to mind.

"No, this is Archimedes the second, Atobe's cousin." Tezuka explained. "Atobe was already killed because my mother used him to make our Thanksgiving dinner." Remembering his beloved chicken Atobe brought tears to Tezuka's eyes, and he turned away to not let his teammates see him cry. Tezuka always had a soft spot for chickens.

Oishi decided that Fuji wasn't the weirdest person aboard. Tezuka was even weirder.

"I wish I had brought Karupin," Ryoma muttered aside, looking enviously at the pets Tezuka and Fuji brought.

"Fshuu…" Kaidoh nodded in agreement. He would be rather glad to have a cat to play with. After all, he wasn't really looking forward to spending a week on a deserted island with a bunch of crazy people. He might become crazy too. That way, there wouldn't be any sane people left in Seigaku. He tried but could not suppress a shudder.

Ryoma sipped his Ponta, noted that Inui was reading diligently and asked, "Inui-senpai, why are you studying anyway? We are supposed to be on vacation, aren't we?"

"Yes, but I need to prepare for my GRE so I can get into a good university abroad," Inui explained.

Ryoma looked bewildered, "Isn't it a little bit too early to prepare for that?"

"You never know," Inui lifted his glasses, "but anyway, are any one of you going to fetch Kikumaru out of the water or something? I believe he's already been down there for five minutes. There is a ten percent chance that he has hit his head on the bottom of the boat and fainted, a five percent chance that he bumped into the motor, and a twenty-five percent chance that-"

"Ah, I forgot all about him," Oishi said embarrassedly.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING HERE FOR? GO SAVE HIM NOW!" Everyone screamed at him.

Oishi sighed and wondered why everytime someone was in trouble he had to be the one to fix it. He simply did not understand. But he obligingly jumped into the water anyway, not that he believed that Eiji was in trouble at all. He was probably waiting for Oishi to come down so he could throw seaweed at him.

When it came to his doubles partner, Oishi was usually right. Eiji was indeed waiting for Oishi to come down so he could throw seaweed at him, and did so. Oishi pondered sadly why his teammates had to act like they were half their actual age.

"Splendid weather, Tezuka," Fuji said, gently running his hand through the fur of his schnauzer.

"Yes, splendid weather."  
Despite everything that was going on, these two were indeed quite peaceful.

- - - - -- - - - -- --

"We are there. I see land!" Momo shouted, standing at the head of the boat and gesturing wildly. "See, Echizen? That's the Statue of Liberty."

"Not funny, senpai," Ryoma smirked and pushed Momo into the water.

"Not again…" Oishi sobbed to himself.

Meanwhile, Fuji was having a happy conversation with the men who owned the boat.

"You will come to pick us up a week later, right?"

"Yes. We need to have a vacation these few days too," the boat owner said, grinning. The men liked the Seigaku students immensely already because these students provided them interesting subjects for teatime chitchat. This was the first time in their ten years of ferrying experience that they had ever met people who could fall into the water so many times in one single trip. They couldn't wait for the students to leave so they could laugh at them behind their backs.

"That way, if there's a hurricane this week, we will have to depend on ourselves," Fuji said, smiling as if it were good news.

"That way, if a serial killer appears like in movies, we will have to depend on ourselves," Inui said aside to Kaidoh, smiling as if it was good news.

Kaidoh could only hiss in reply. He didn't think that it was good news at all, but then he decided that even if there was a serial killer Inui could not be harmed in any way, because Inui was even scarier than a serial killer.

Inui, queer as he was, was never a prophet. Yet the simple joke actually foretold the tragic end of the Seigaku tennis club.

The house they were staying in was quite different from what they had expected. They had thought that Atobe's house would be extravagant in every way, yet the house was a large, unassuming, plain Chinese-looking building, built with wood. There were nine bedrooms, and each regular claimed one. The living room was huge, with a piano standing in a corner. The dining room was next to the living room, and the kitchen by the living room. There was also a disco room and a strange exhibition room full of curious looking dummies dressed in beautiful renaissance-style clothes. It seemed that the designer of this house also had interest in designing clothes. A small library was situated at the end of the long hall, which was decorated with oil paintings. Next to the library was a door that Atobe had deliberately emphasized that must not be opened.

"But the more he says not to open it, the more we will want to open it," Momo pointed out.

"We might find some good data," Inui said.

"But Atobe said no…" Oishi protested meekly. He was one of the few who were not that eager to know what kind of secret Atobe had hidden behind the door. Tezuka was also one, but it was only because the name Atobe made him remember his dead pet of the same name, and he felt too sad to think about anything else.

Fuji, who preferred direct approaches, reached out and tried the door, "It's locked."

"Well, we will definitely find out his secret one day," Eiji said optimistically. "Perhaps he has treasure hidden in the room."

Eiji was a simple person, so he would only think about simple things like treasure. Inui, meanwhile, was not a simple person.

"I think it must be like Bluebeard's chamber," he said thoughtfully. "He probably has all the corpses of his ex-girlfriends hidden inside. Maybe we can even find Kabaji in there." Except that it would be pretty hard to kill Kabaji.

There was a Chinese garden surrounding the house, complete with little bridges and little streams, as well as a fake stone mountain, just like Eiji had guessed. A set of stairs led downward to a dark storage room. From the looks of it, no one had probably been there for a long time. Behind the house were the tennis courts and the swimming pool, and a bamboo forest. When the wind blew the bamboos swayed with the breeze, making frightening noises that sounded like several coffin lids were being opened. If one heard the noise alone one could be quite scared, but since they were not alone and there were some hotheaded youths among them, they decided to explore the place right away.

"Can't we wait until tomorrow?" Oishi sighed exhaustedly to Eiji and Momo who were happily trying to drag Ryoma to the forest with them, "Aren't you two tired after the boat trip?"

Apparently they weren't tired at all.

"But it's late. Look, it's almost dark outside…" Oishi began desperately.

"Then we can bring flashlights," Momo cried happily, immediately pulling out a flashlight.

"Seems fun," Fuji joined in, stepping forward with his dog.

If it were only Eiji and Momo, Oishi could talk them out of it with Tezuka and Kawamura, but since Fuji joined, talking them out of anything was out of the question. Therefore, after they put down the luggage in their respective rooms, the nine regulars, a dog and a chicken grabbed flashlights and headed for the bamboo forest.

* * *

Mmm, this is going to be longer than I expected it to be. It might take a few more chapters before anyone gets killed…

Hachinoko: Thanks for reviewing! I believe that there is a Disneyland in Tokyo? I've never been to one before…(cries)

Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. Happy New Year!


	3. Chapter 3

It was quite dark inside the bamboo forest. It should have been, judging from the fact that it was already night. The regulars made their way carefully through the trees, half of them enthusiastic and the other half wondering why they were present at all. Kaidoh was naturally one of the latter. He hissed in frustration as he noted how chilly it was, a shiver going up his spine.

Momo, who was leading the way, taunted happily, "Scared, viper?"

"Shut up or I'll stuff your flashlight into your mouth," Kaidoh snapped.

"Not effective, totally not effective, Kaidoh," Fuji smiled and proceeded to give Kaidoh a lesson on how to insult more effectively. "If you want to shut him up you should say 'shut up or I'll stuff your flashlight into your ass.' That's more intimidating."

"But I don't want to stuff his flashlight into his ass," Kaidoh said, horrified.

"I don't think Momo-senpai's flashlight works anyway. This is like the seventh time I bumped into his back already," Ryoma, who was walking behind Momo, complained. "Wait…look!"

They looked.

"Fshuu…fireflies."

Even Kaidoh forgot to be irritated and watched the twinkling little lights waltz around them contentedly. He rarely saw any fireflies since he lived in Tokyo, and seeing them up this close was a first. He had absolutely no idea whether fireflies inhabited bamboo forests, but he was not going to question about it now and ruin the atmosphere.

"Of course, the biological clock of fireflies…" Inui began, pulling out a map of the Netherlands to explain. Everyone threw things at him because he was spoiling the romantic effect. Besides, the map had nothing to do with what he said.

The fireflies were not affected in the slightest by such violent happenings and continued glimmering, like stars except that they were not up in the sky.

"They are beautiful!" Eiji exclaimed admiringly, trying to catch one. With his good reflexes he even succeeded, but Oishi told him to let it go because he was worried that Momo might eat it.

Even Tezuka had to admit that they were beautiful and said so. Fuji turned to see the little spots of light reflected in his captain's eyes and thought it remarkable how nice and soft Tezuka's eyes were when he was not looking stern. Tezuka did not see any little spots of light reflected in Fuji's eyes though, because they were closed.

Inui decided that all this sappiness going on was way too much, and proceeded to wonder aloud, "Hey, I don't want to interrupt or anything, but do any of you remember the way back?"

The nine people looked at each other and slowly shook their heads.

"Come on, this is just a small forest. We can't get lost this easily," Momo said encouragingly, and bumped into a tree. Ryoma bumped into his back for the eighth time.

"I can't take this anymore," Ryoma grumbled. "This flashlight isn't even bright. Does anyone have anything else that can help make this place less dark?"

"Sure." Fuji pulled out a wand. "_Lumos_!"

Of course he did not say that. Even if he knew magic like he seemed to, he wouldn't have shown it to Muggles.

"Sure," Fuji said, pulling over a large bamboo stick and forcing it into Kawamura's large hand.

"BURNING!" Kawamura shouted and went into burning mode. Immediately they could see the way.

"The house is actually right over there," Momo blinked at the difference the extra light made. "Good, let's go back!"

They all made their way out of the forest and headed towards the house except for Kawamura, who was cutting bamboo like there was no tomorrow. Momo and Eiji cheered him on, obviously wanting to have bamboo for dinner.

"You can't have bamboo for dinner. Only pandas have bamboo for dinner," Ryoma pointed out calmly. "Anyway, what are _we_ having for dinner?"

Everyone considered this and looked at each other in shock. None of them had brought anything edible besides junk food.

"Let's duel! The loser will be eaten," Momo suggested.

"Fine, let's," Kaidoh agreed and pulled out his racket, getting into fighting position.

"Wait," Momo suddenly put down his racket, "I am so hungry that I have no strength to fight."

Ryoma stared, "But haven't you just finished three hamburgers, two doughnuts, a pizza, eight watermelons and twenty-seven bags of chocolate-chip cookies on the boat?"

"I'm still hungry…" Momo pouted, rubbing his stomach, which was actually growling.

"Hey guys, come look!" Eiji shouted from inside the kitchen. "They've got everything here!"

And by "everything" he meant everything. Atobe's family wasn't rich for nothing. There were even boxes of the best champagne inside the fridge, and a cat's head in the microwave. No, there couldn't be; that would make this a horror story. Not that this wasn't meant to be a horror story…

"Great, I thought we would have to eat Fujiko's dog food. Now we don't have to worry about anything." Momo said happily. "So who's cooking?"

"I'll do it," Fuji offered with a smile.

"Never," Tezuka said. Even Tezuka knew that letting Fuji cook would be suicide.

"I can cook also," Inui volunteered, and was pushed out of the kitchen right away.

"Well, that way you can't blame us for not helping," Fuji shrugged and went out to join Inui.

"So I guess we'll cook," Kawamura, who was in normal mode again, said and picked up an eggbeater.

As if some kind of invisible switch had been turned on, Kawamura started burning again. It was fortunate that he had an eggbeater instead of a knife, or he would have sliced off Kaidoh's head. Therefore, for their own safety Oishi, Tezuka and Kaidoh pushed Kawamura out of the room too and took the responsibility of making dinner themselves.

Dinner was noisy and fun, as dinners always were. Oishi felt suddenly sentimental as he watched his teammates fight and steal each other's food. It was not far from graduation already. What would happen when he graduated? Who would be there to stop these crazy people from putting banana skins into each other's soup?

"Maybe this is the last time we will all stay together for vacation," he sniffled wistfully.

"Aw, let's not talk about sad things," Eiji said. He hated sentimental talks because they made him cry.

"Yes. Now, to change the subject, I'll tell a scary story," Inui put in right on cue.

That was rather sudden, but no one objected because objecting would seem like a cowardly act.

"Cool, I'll turn off the lights!" Momo announced, and did so.

Kaidoh did not like this. He really did not like this. Why did creepy Inui-senpai had to bring up such subjects? Why couldn't he have dinner in peace?

"Okay," Inui cleared his throat, "this story happened ten years ago, on a snowing winter afternoon…"

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. Sorry for the lack of action in this chapter…

To -----: Thanks for the review! Glad you liked it. Leave a name next time okay? (Because "to ----" looks funny XD)


	4. Chapter 4

"This scary story happened ten years ago, on a snowing winter afternoon…" Inui began dreamily, sipping his tea.

---

"Don't go, my love…" A beautiful young girl sobbed, holding desperately onto her handsome male teacher's jacket. They were in an airport.

"No, my dear. I must not become a burden to you. You must move on and find your own true love in life," her teacher said, stroking her golden curls affectionately.

"My love, I will grow up soon," she cried. "When I grow up, I will find you. I will be yours forever, my honey, and nothing will ever separate us."

"Yes," the teacher nodded gently, trying to hide the tears in his brown eyes but failing miserably, "nothing will ever separate us…"

---

"…This isn't the right story," Ryoma finally said.

"Yes," Inui cleared his throat again, "that was the wrong story. I'm sorry. The real story happened six years ago in the mountains, it was beautiful and sunny…"

---

"My love, please give me another chance." The girl wept, running towards her teacher and her only true love.

"No, I am too old for you. I must not ruin your life. Adieu forever, my darling!" The teacher jumped onto a bike and pedaled away, wanting to leave the girl for good. When people are in love, they often have to make some decisions even if they are painful. Once the person has decided, there is no turning back. The teacher was facing such a situation.

"No, don't leave me!" The girl shrieked, jumped on another bike and went after him.

"Wow, the teacher is pedaling so fast. He is catching up with a train. No, he is even faster than the train," Kaidoh said in amazement.

"The teacher is heading for the freeway," Tezuka said expressionlessly, watching the whole fiasco with binoculars.

"He has just passed Schumacher's F1 racecar," Eiji exclaimed in admiration.

"What a fast biker." Inui said, finishing his own tea and starting to drink Kawamura's. "If one day I can also have such a bike…"

"Stop it, senpai," Momo broke in. "Are you going to tell us your scary story or not?"

"Momoshiro, that's so inconsiderate." Inui wiped away the hopeful tears that were streaming down his face. "Every real man must have dreamed of having such a wonderful bike…"

"Inui, be serious," Tezuka said, even though he had been happily watching the teacher ride the bike with his new binoculars himself. He bought them for bird watching in the mountains. Sadly, there weren't any mountains around.

---

"Okay, this time I'm really going to be serious." Inui began. "Have any of you heard the story '_And Then There Were None'_?"

"The one by Agatha Christie? Yes," Fuji smiled.

The rest of them, not being a bored genius and sadist like Fuji, had not heard of it, and all started pestering Inui so he would tell them about it.

"It's like this. Ten people come to a small island. They find ten little wooden figures of little Indians in the house they are staying in. They also find a poem about ten little Indians," Inui explained.

"And?" Momo said.

"You know this kind of poem. Perhaps to teach kids how to count properly, it has rhyming sentences about what happened to each little Indian. The number of the Indians decreases one by one. For example,_ one choked his little self and then there were Nine, one overslept himself and then there were Eight,_ etc."

Kaidoh shivered.

"And the ten people are killed like the little Indians in the poem. For example, for _one choked his little self and then there were Nine, _the person dies from food poisoning. For _one overslept himself and then there were Eight_, the person dies in her sleep. The little wooden figures disappear one by one accordingly. In the end, _there were none_…"

Inui finished and waited complacently for the reaction.

"That's not scary at all, nya," Eiji said, putting chicken bones into Inui's tea. It was to avenge Oishi, whose tea was mixed with coffee and seven-up by Inui and nearly threw up after one gulp.

"Yeah, I thought it would be much scarier," Momo scoffed.

"Mada mada dane," Ryoma said, pulling down his cap.

"Yes, it's not scary," Inui said, "but you know, that story actually happened on this island."

Inui felt Tezuka, who was sitting by him, jerk abruptly.

"And," Fuji added in a timely manner, "did anyone notice that on the shelf above the piano, there are ten wooden figures of little Indians?"

Kaidoh almost jumped at this statement. He grabbed Kawamura's hand, unable to let go. Thoughts along the line of "Kawamura-senpai, you are the only reliable person here; they are all freaks, help me" were running amok in his mind.

"Oooh, really?" Eiji cried eagerly, and being the curious one of the team he ran out to the living room where the piano was to check.

"Eiji, don't run about alone, it's dangerous!" Oishi cried out in dismay and followed him out.

Momo was secretly a little surprised at Fuji's statement, but he wasn't going to show it, especially not in front of Kaidoh. He said with feigned light-heartedness, " There's really nothing to worry about Eiji-senpai running outside alone. We are all right here. How can we kill him if he runs outside alone? And to get killed, he naturally needs someone to do it."

"True," Fuji said gently, "we are all right here. But we have only nine people in the first place. Who knows there won't be a tenth person waiting outside?"

This statement successfully destroyed the last wall of Kaidoh's defense. "Kawamura-senpai, I'll sleep with you tonight," he whispered.

"Uh…" Kawamura said.

Fuji put in, "Now, Kaidoh, how can you be sure Taka-san isn't the killer?"

"Yes, the best and safest way will be to lock your bedroom door," Inui added. These two work as a perfect combination when their goal was to scare Kaidoh to death.

"But the bedroom door looks like it could be forced open by a few kicks…" Kaidoh murmured.

"Stop talking nonsense." Tezuka, noticing that Kaidoh was really trembling, decided to put a stop to the outrageous conversation. "We know that it is just a story. It is pointless talking about killers when we all know very well that there are no killers among us."

"Just a story?" Fuji said innocently, "But don't you think Eiji and Oishi are gone a little bit too long?"

Right on cue, as if to answer Fuji's question, Eiji screamed from the living room, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

No, of course he did not do that. That was the unforgivable curse.

Right on cue, as if to answer Fuji's question, Eiji screamed from the living room, "AAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Upon hearing the scream, Kaidoh ducked under the dining table as if it would do him any good, Momo grabbed Ryoma's arm, almost pulling it off in the process, and Ryoma just sat there and sweatdropped. It wasn't like he could do anything else, Momo's grip was too tight.

The brave and righteous Tezuka Kunimitsu did not fear the made-up (or so he thought) little story of Inui's, so he stood up and went into the living room to investigate. The room was dark, for Momo had turned off the lights so the rays of light wouldn't slip into the dining room and destroy the scary-story atmosphere. Tezuka looked around, trying to find the switch when he heard Eiji's moans from the ground.

"Are you all right? What happened?" Tezuka asked with a frown, forcing himself to adjust his eyes to the darkness as soon as possible. What if something terrible really happened? What if…

"Nothing, buchou… it's just that I stepped on your Archimedes the second and tripped over him," Eiji explained, getting up from the floor.

"Che, mada mada dane," Ryoma said with a smirk.

"Archimedes the second, are you okay?" Tezuka knelt on the floor, hugging his beloved chicken. His feathers, his beautiful feathers… Kikumaru you idiot, I'm going to get you for this…

"Buchou, you're so heartless! Do you care more about your chicken or me?" Eiji grumbled.

"His chicken, obviously." Ryoma said. "Anyway, where's Oishi-senpai?"

As his spoke, Inui finally found the light switch and turned the lights on. The living room was immediately brightly lit and they all blinked in confusion.

Oishi was standing beside the piano, looking thoughtfully at the shelves above it. Fuji was by his side.

"Weird," Fuji said, stroking his chin, "I was just joking back there at the table. I'm pretty sure they weren't here when we arrived…"

On the shelf stood ten little wooden monkey figures.

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome.

To anon: Thanks for the review! I sort of like Tezuka better that way...


	5. Chapter 5

Such a scene shocked even Momo, who had quite the best imagination among all of them. In his fourteen years of life he had never seen anything like this. Each of the ten little wooden monkeys had different features, some lacked tails, and one of them did not even have eyes.

"Well, we should hide them, so they won't disappear one by one like in the story Inui-senpai told us." Momo considered the situation and concluded. "That way, no one will die."

Ryoma lifted his head, craning his neck to see upon the high shelf. "We should, but how are we going to reach them?"

"If they can be placed up there, there should probably be a way to get them down also," Inui said, but he was puzzled too. He was likely the tallest in all of them, but even when he stretched his arms and jumped up and down he couldn't reach the monkey figures.

"How did they get up there in the first place?" Kawamura wondered. "Maybe whoever it was that did it used a ladder?"

Oishi asked, holding his stomach, "Is there a ladder around here anyway?"

Eiji exclaimed happily, "Yes there is, wasn't there a set of stairs that lead down to the storage room? I saw a ladder right there on the stairs. Should we go get it?"

"We don't really need it," Momo said. Seeing that Kaidoh was extremely pale, the actually considerate youth deliberately tried to lighten the atmosphere. "This must be just some kind of prank, nothing will really happen. Probably Fuji-senpai or Inui-senpai did this. After all, why will anyone get monkey figures instead of little Indians if they really intend to scare us?"

"Maybe because they can't find little Indian figures anywhere," Fuji suggested with an innocent smile, "but it wasn't me. Am I the kind of person who will play pranks on others?"

The others did not even bother to tell him "Yes you are".

"And anyway, I'm not tall enough," Fuji shrugged.

"Come on, I bet this is just a joke," Momo put on an extra large grin. "Forget about it! Let's play a game. How about hide and seek?"

"Hide and seek is stupid. Let's play ring-around-the-rosy," Eiji exclaimed.

Ryoma rolled his eyes, "That's even more stupid. Do people even play ring-around-the-rosy nowadays?"

"Let's just play tag," Inui said.

So that was what they did, even though tag was no less stupid than hide and seek and ring-around-the-rosy. They had such a good time that they forgot all about the scary story and the monkey figures. Tezuka and Fuji even began a game of bingo aside on the sofa, while Eiji and Kawamura had a salt-eating contest, just like in every normal camping fic. Or no. Why will any normal person put scenes of people eating salt inside their camping fics?

In the end, just like in every normal camping fic, they gathered in Ryoma's room, sitting on the bed, each hugging a pillow, talking about their bright future plans and playing truth or dare. After all, they were just happy teenagers. What else can you expect them to do?

After a few rounds of monopoly and other games, Oishi finally asked, "Fuji, it _was_ you who put the monkeys there, right?" With his personality, Oishi could never stop worrying until he was a hundred percent sure of the truth.

Fuji looked surprised and hurt. "It's not me. Have I ever lied to you?"

No one even bothered to tell him yes.

"Ah, forget about those monkeys, let's have a World Wrestling Entertainment game," Momo declared and threw his pillow at Oishi. Oishi quickly dodged it, and the pillow hit Eiji who was busily sipping seven-up behind him. The seven-up was spilled all over the bedcovers.

"My seven-up! My seven-up!" Eiji cried in horror, flinging the empty can in the air.

"My bed! My bed!" Ryoma also leapt up in horror, picking up a pillow to attack Momo. Yet in the few seconds that had just passed the resourceful Inui had already made a fortress out of pillows for Momo to hide behind. It wasn't that he had suddenly decided to become allies with Momo or anything, just that he thought it would be fun to build a fortress.

"That's unfair, Inui! If you use all the pillows to make a fortress, how are we going to have a pillow fight?" Eiji said indignantly, ready to launch attack at Inui but not able to find any weapons at hand.

"The safest thing to do now will be to hide under the blankets," Inui calculated and hid under the blankets to prove his point.

"Coward, I'll burn your blankets. BURNING!" Kawamura yelled, racket in hand.

"Don't, you will burn down Atobe's house," Oishi shouted in desperation, trying to wrench the racket out of Kawamura's hand, "not that he will miss it, but still…"

"Oishi, you are no fun. I'll throw you into the garbage bin if you keep being so serious," Eiji pouted.

"YAY! GARBAGE BIN! GARBAGE BIN! GARBAGE BIN!" Momo screamed enthusiastically, throwing Ryoma's clothes everywhere.

"Not my Yu-gi-oh underwear, Momo-senpai!" Ryoma jumped up in frustration.

"BURNING! BURNING! COME ON BABY!"

"The house is made of wood, Taka-san," Oishi cried, "Fuji, why did you give him his racket in the first place?

"It wasn't me. You hate me! When something bad happens, you blame it on me!" Fuji said with faked tears in his eyes.

"I didn't mean…" Oishi began.

"Oishi, you are no fun. You blame everything on Fuji." Eiji cried, "I'll throw you into the garbage bin."

"Not my garbage bin, senpai!" Ryoma tried to make himself heard but failed because Momo and Kaidoh's one-on-one combat was too loud. They weren't using loud weapons like tambourines or gongs; it was just that they were both grunting very loudly like people always do in combat scenes in movies.

So they all started to fight. Tezuka, deciding that he was the only sane person in the group, tried to hide behind Inui's fortress, but the others took it apart within milliseconds.

Dust flew around in the small crowded room. None of the regulars cared about scary stories and mysterious happenings anymore. All they did was have fun, as if there were no tomorrow.

For one of them, there was indeed no tomorrow.

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. Sorry I haven't killed anyone yet… I apologize for the lack of action.

To anon: Thanks for the review! I think Tezuka and chickens somehow go together very well…


	6. Chapter 6

-Monday-

At exactly six in the morning, the peaceful silence was broken by a series of rooster crows. But it was not Tezuka's chicken Archimedes the second that was doing the crowing.

"Shut up, Momo-senpai," Ryoma groaned, eyes still shut. "You are not a chicken. You are drunk. Go back to sleep."

The regulars had been having pillow fights and throwing cake in each other's faces all the way till 4 o'clock in the morning, and two hours of sleep was barely enough. Ryoma threw a pillow at Momo to express his irritation.

"Aw, Echizen, we are on vacation on a deserted island. Come on, we must not waste precious time. Let's go to the beach now," Momo cried, walking into Ryoma's room to take the covers off the sleeping boy.

"Somebody please stop him," Ryoma pleaded, trying to get his blanket back by wrestling with Momo using both his legs.

As he spoke, a tennis ball came zooming in, and with a perfect curve slammed straight into Momo's butt. Seeing the way it curved in its path, there was no doubt where this ball came from.

"You asked for it, stupid viper," Momo bared his teeth and stormed out of the room to give Kaidoh a piece of his mind.

"Thanks, Kaidoh-senpai," Ryoma muttered, rolled over and drifted off again into sleep.

After their fight both Momo and Kaidoh went back to sleep, and it was not until noon did they all finally got out of bed to have brunch.

"We have overslept. We have let our guard down, and this is only the first day. This should not be encouraged," Tezuka said as he ate his rice with a scowl.

"Well, we are on vacation after all," Fuji smiled. Because he thought that they were on vacation, he did not even bother to change out of his kimono.

"What are we doing in the afternoon?" Eiji asked, standing in the bathroom doorway and chewing on his toothbrush. "How about we all go to the beach?"

"YAY! BEACH! BEACH! BEACH!" Momo screamed. Even Ryoma and Kaidoh looked slightly excited. They were, after all, the younger ones of the group.

Oishi sighed aside. What a day he was going to have.

After everyone had eaten, the regulars went separate ways. Besides the ones that happily made a beeline for the beach, there were some that did more peaceful things. Take Tezuka for example. The calm, righteous captain naturally did not head into the water, even though he could swim excellently. He chose instead to stroll in the Chinese garden with his chicken. Fuji and Kawamura went to explore the remaining parts of the island that they hadn't seen yet. They found a steep cliff somewhere behind the forest. Fuji was all for telling Oishi about it because he enjoyed seeing him worry, but he did not meet Oishi until dinner time, when he had already forgotten all about it.

Fuji Syusuke did not forget things easily, especially things he planned to torment people with. It took an extreme situation to make him do so, and what happened around dinnertime was such an extreme situation.

Though the island was not a big one, there were still enough places to explore. Therefore, the regulars did not all stick together for most of the time but roamed the place freely. When it was finally getting dark, they returned to the house on the agreed time for dinner, six o'clock, like homing pigeons. Oishi had already made dinner, and was busily running in and out of the kitchen with dishes.

"This island is fantastic, Echizen. I saw a purple-green striped fish in the-" Momo swung into the house, ready to share the accounts of his day with his unfortunate kouhai when he realized that Ryoma wasn't listening to him.

"What's up?" Momo hit Ryoma's head playfully, waiting for an answer.

"Momo-senpai…" Ryoma began, staring at the shelf above the piano. "Wasn't there ten yesterday?"

Upon the shelf, there were only nine little monkey figures.

Momo managed a dry laugh, "Did you take one away, Echizen?"

"I'm way too short," Ryoma rolled his eyes.

"It might have fallen down because of an earthquake or something," Momo suggested hopefully. He had had a weird feeling in his gut about these creepy monkeys ever since they had found them the day before, and Momo was always one who relied on his gut. Still, because he had noticed that Kaidoh looked scared, he had done his best to pretend that everything was fine and tried to lighten the atmosphere. He had managed to forget all about it in the cheery daylight, yet the sudden disappearance of a little monkey figure somehow brought the queer feeling back into his stomach again.

"I didn't feel an earthquake," Ryoma smirked. "If it's strong enough to shake one of the monkeys off the shelf, I would have felt it."

"Maybe you were swimming when it happened," Momo shrugged. "Anyway, I'm hungry. Let's get to dinner."

Dragging Ryoma into the kitchen, Momo saw that most of the others were back already. Inui and Fuji were both a little late, though they did not return together. Momo thought that they had probably ventured to the further side of the island.

"Good, now everyone's here, we can start eating-" Tezuka began, picking up his chopsticks. "No, wait, where's Kaidoh?"

The regulars around the table looked at each other. Kaidoh Kaoru was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Finally something's happening. To be continued, thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. Most of the keys in the bottom row of my keyboard (AND my comma and period) are not working, and I have to use copy-paste all the time (sobs) so it will be a while before I update again... I need a new keyboard... 


	7. Chapter 7

Tezuka put down his chopsticks and stood up, looking stern. "Did anyone see Kaidoh?"

Everyone exchanged looks and shook their heads.

"He might have gotten lost in the house or something," Kawamura suggested embarrassedly. "I myself got lost earlier this afternoon. After all, this is the first time I've stayed in such a big house…"

"Probably not," Fuji gently put in. "The reason I took so long to come to dinner was because I was checking out the whole house. I would have seen him if he was stranded somewhere."

Oishi asked, slightly confused, "Why did you check out the whole house?"

"It is just my little habit," Fuji smiled and said.

"Maybe he was hiding somewhere to scare us, and fell asleep when he was waiting for us to return," Eiji piped up.

"Kaidoh is not you," Tezuka said, still looking as stern as ever.

"He couldn't have been hiding. I have checked all the places a person can hide in," Fuji said, "for example, the closets, the fridge, the toilet and the desk drawers."

Oishi decided aside that Fuji could indeed be weird sometimes, but his weird observance came in handy in situations like this. He could never understand why Fuji thought that a person could hide in drawers though.

"Kaidoh is obedient and always follows the rules. He would never be this late. Something must be wrong," Inui said, all kinds of crazy possibilities running about in his head. "After all, we did have a compact that the people who come back late must drink my newest codfish marshmallow Inui-juice, and I'm pretty sure that Kaidoh won't want that."

"Forget your Inui-juice, we must find that viper quickly," Momo cried, totally forgetting to be respectful to his dangerous senpai. But strangely, Inui did not even seem to have heard him. His mind was already elsewhere.

"If he's not in the house, then he must be outside. It's getting dark, and the tide is coming in. It's not safe outside. Let's go look for him right now," Oishi said, worried.

"Yeah, let's go," Momo declared and took out his flashlight. We do not know why he had a flashlight. It must be because stereotypical hotheaded youths always have flashlights with them.

"Wait, we must all stick together," Oishi said, dragging back an excited Eiji who was already bouncing for the door. "If we find Kaidoh and lose somebody else instead, that will be even more trouble."

Tezuka nodded solemnly. Being always prepared, he too had a flashlight even though he was not hotheaded like Momo."Yes, we must be careful. Does anyone besides Momoshiro and I have a flashlight? No? Okay, we'll split into two groups. Those whose index fingers are longer than their ring fingers will check the southwestern side of the island with me. Those whose ring fingers are longer than their index fingers, follow Momoshiro."

Everyone quickly checked their fingers. Tezuka, Fuji, Kawamura and Oishi had longer ring fingers while the others had longer index fingers. But they then decided that this was a stupid way to split into groups, so they simply chose groups according to their own liking. Tezuka went with Fuji and Oishi to check the southwestern side of the island, Momo, Ryoma and Eiji took off to the northeastern side, while Inui and Kawamura stayed behind in case Kaidoh returned, discovered that everyone was gone, panicked and ran out again.

"Kaidoh must be lost or something," Kawamura broke the awkward silence between himself and Inui carefully. "I don't think anything bad has happened to him."

Inui ignored him, turned his head towards the shelf above the piano and said thoughtfully, "Look, there are only nine little monkeys left."

"It must be…um…" Kawamura shuddered. Inui had always been a little bit scary. He was now a big bit scary.

"Considering Kaidoh's personality and the fact that there are only nine little monkeys left, the percentage of him having gotten in serious trouble is 85 percent," Inui said calmly.

Kawamura wondered to himself how Inui could look so cool and composed. He watched the pale moonlight shine in, reflecting on Inui's glasses. From Kawamura's viewpoint, Inui looked somehow -strangely- sad.

"It's so cold out here," Eiji murmured after his third sneeze in a row. It had become very windy on the island when night fell, and Eiji hadn't really remembered to bring any jackets.

Momo nodded, leading the way with his flashlight, "Yeah. When we find that viper I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind. Who does he think he is, making us coming out to look for him in a chilly night like this?"

"Where can Kaidoh-senpai be at such a-" Ryoma began, but never got to finish his sentence because at the precise moment they all heard a dog barking wildly in the distance.

"It's Fujiko," Eiji exclaimed.

"Let's check it out," Momo frowned, leading the two others towards the barking dog. Finally they stopped as they found Fujiko. The small dog leapt up at them, wagging her tail excitedly.

Ryoma squinted in the dark, "Where are we?"

"It's the stairs that lead to the storage basement," Eiji said, looking down.

Momo pointed his flashlight downwards at the steep stairs. The small beam of light couldn't reach very far, and the deeper part was still an eerie pitch black. Fujiko barked on, nudging Momo at his feet, as if she was motioning him to go down the stairs.

Momo hesitated, took a deep breath and moved closer towards the stairs. Fujiko darted down the steps, and Momo traced her movements with his flashlight. Fujiko stopped at the very end of the stairs. Beside her, was-

"STAY BACK!" Momo yelled, instinctively shielding his senpai and kouhai behind him, not wanting them to see what he saw.

"Momo, what-" Eiji began, though he wasn't really sure that he wanted to know.

Kaidoh Kaoru lay motionlessly at the end of the stairs. Momo could even see his face. He looked quite normal except that he had a wide-eyed, slightly surprised expression on his face and his neck was twisted in a way that normal people could never have done. There was what looked like a hole on his head and blood was everywhere.

"Go get the others. Quick," Momo ordered, trying to make his voice sound steady. Ryoma was younger than he was, and even though Eiji was a senpai he did not really act like one. Therefore, Momo immediately decided that he must be brave and act responsibly to protect the two from the tragic scene.

Eiji whispered, trembling, "What about you?"

Momo did not like the notion of staying with a corpse alone, but he didn't want to just leave it here either. "I… I'll stay here with Fujiko. Go, senpai, it's all right."

"Um, okay. Let's go, ochibi," Eiji managed a tiny smile and dragged Ryoma towards the house.

After the two disappeared from sight, running as fast as their legs would carry them, Momo slowly made his way down the stairs and knelt down beside Kaidoh. He bit his lip, staring blankly at his motionless teammate. Unable to resist a strange urge, he gingerly touched the corpse with one finger. It felt cold, like it should, and sent a horrible chill up Momo's spine.

Momo had been bitter rivals with Kaidoh ever since they first met. They never liked each other in a friendly way, but come to think of it, they liked each other in an unfriendly sort of way. They had never been best friends and never would be, but they had been the best of enemies.

Suddenly Momo stood up. He felt like screaming, so he screamed.

"KAIDOH KAORU!" he yelled, the walls seemingly vibrating with his incredibly loud voice, "YOU COWARD!"

Ever since they had known each other, there was always a competition going on. Deep down inside Momo had always thought that one day he would be able to prove that he was better than Kaidoh, in perhaps a fair match or something.

Yet now he would never have a chance to prove that he was stronger than that viper. He hated Kaidoh for this. It felt like that Kaidoh had chickened out or forfeited an important match that they had been anticipating for their entire lives, and Momo didn't like feeling betrayed. Well, it wasn't like Kaidoh could help it, but he felt betrayed nevertheless.

He also felt sorry. If only he had treated Kaidoh better. If only he had been more friendly. If only he could take back the mocking words he had said.

If only he had been by Kaidoh when this had happened, he could have protected him.

After his outburst Momo felt reasonably better. Pulling himself together in a heroic effort, he put up an obviously feigned smile to greet his teammates, who were running towards him in a blind state of panic. Momo decided that Eiji and Ryoma were really fast runners to have brought everyone there so soon.

"Why?" was all Oishi could say as he tried vainly to control another attack of stomachache. Kaidoh had been a nice guy. If a killer held a grudge toward somebody, that somebody probably wouldn't be Kaidoh.

"It's horrible," Kawamura murmured, staring at the hole in Kaidoh's head in utter confusion.

Meanwhile, Inui knelt down to study the body. He calculated with a professional, unemotional tone, "There's a 30 percent chance that he had been hit on the head by someone, a 30 percent chance that he had been pushed down the stairs and hit his head, a 40 percent chance that he had fallen down the stairs by accident, and a 0 percent chance that he had died by eating too much tomatoes. This may not be the result of an intentional attack. He could have been in an accident…"

A soft "Mrowr" broke the steady flow of the words. Inui turned to see a cat nudging his legs.

"Look, this is a stray cat. Perhaps Kaidoh was too busy playing with the cat to notice his bearings."

"This is not a stray," Ryoma cried out in surprise. "This is Karupin. Karupin, how the heck did you get here anyway? Bad cat!" He remembered the time that Karupin had miraculously stowed himself in his bag and followed him all the way to the U.S. without being noticed by the customs. Apparently this time Karupin had done the same thing.

As they were pondering the possibilities of the tragic death of their teammate, Fuji piped up thoughtfully, "Hey, look at his clothes, guys."

They all looked. Fuji pointed Tezuka's flashlight directly at the body.

Kaidoh was wearing a queer gold-and-white Renaissance-period style dress. It was very elaborate and looked out-of-place on the usually simply dressed Kaidoh.

* * *

FINALLY someone dies… sorry about taking so long to kill someone off.

To be continued. Reviews are very welcome. Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

"I remember seeing this kind of clothes in the exhibition room in the house. Many of the dummies had on those terribly scratchy-looking dresses." Fuji stated.

"This, of course, raises the percentage of Kaidoh being murdered instead of an accidental death, but we never know. This can be a prank for all I know." Inui said calmly. He was doing a good job of acting cool and composed, but from the way he rambled more than he usually did it seemed that he did not really feel cool and composed at all.

"As we can see, this basement storage room had not been in use for some time," Inui continued, "therefore there is dust everywhere on the floor of its entrance. If anyone comes near this place, they will leave footprints. Look, here's mine, and these are probably Momoshiro's." He pointed at the two clear sets of prints with a flashlight.

"It's the same with the stairs. This set is mine, and these are Momoshiro's," he gestured, "but we do not see Kaidoh's anywhere except on the top step. If he had walked down here, he would have left prints. If someone had wiped out his prints, Momoshiro and I would not have been able to leave ours in the dust, so that is not a possibility. We can conclude that Kaidoh only came as far as the top step."

"Hmm," Tezuka frowned, studying Kaidoh's two footprints. "They are deep."

Inui went on with his theory. "Yes, they are deeper than they should have been, for Kaidoh isn't –wasn't- heavier or much heavier than either me or Momoshiro. These deeper footprints must mean that Kaidoh was jumping when he made them."

"Jumping?" Eiji said in disbelief. He simply could not imagine why Kaidoh would have wanted to jump on the stairs. After all, Kaidoh was not him.

"This means that for some unknown reason, Kaidoh had jumped here and, not noticing the stairs, tumbled down and hit his head," Inui concluded as everyone gaped at him like devoted Inui worshippers.

"Still, this theory cannot explain one thing –Kaidoh's strange Renaissance-period style clothes," Inui said. "The only place that has dust on it is the part which he landed on. The other parts are quite clean. This means that Kaidoh was wearing this dress_ before_ he fell. Which is weird, considering that he was Kaidoh. Had he been Kikumaru we could have found a dozen different reasons to explain why he was dressed this way, but seeing that Kaidoh was not Kikumaru-"

"Yeah, Kaidoh would never do something like that," Fuji said firmly.

"Well, shouldn't we carry him back to the house? It's cruel to just let him lie here," the ever-thoughtful Kawamura pointed out.

They all considered this and realized that he was right. Therefore, they carried Kaidoh back into the building and settled him on his bed in his room. After they had finished this procedure they sat around the dinner table feeling distraught. Dinner was already cold, and no one really cared for it anyway, but Kawamura and Oishi heated it still. They would need strength to cope with this situation, and they needed food to keep themselves sane. Besides, Oishi would feel sad if no one ate his self-proclaimed excellently cooked meal.

As everybody sat playing half-heartedly with the food on their plates in utter silence, various different thoughts raced about in their heads. Despite the fact that they had all previously acted very rational as if they understood the situation very well, most of them still could hardly accept that one of their own was gone. To many it still seemed like a dream. Kaidoh must be just asleep, nothing more. Yes, he _was _wearing that dreadful Renaissance-period style dress, but that could be his idea of a nightgown. Everyone knew that Kaidoh really had no fashion sense at all…

Still, in spite of all the denial, deep down inside everyone knew that the quiet, hardworking teammate was never going to come back again.

After what could only be called a lousy dinner it was getting close to nine o'clock. They cleared the dishes away without having much of a conversation. Finally Tezuka cleared his throat. "We might as well go to sleep. We will need a lot of rest now."

"Can we… can we all sleep together in the same room or something?" Eiji whispered in obvious fear of sleeping alone.

"Sorry, I want to have some time to think over things myself," Inui said.

"But-" Eiji began.

"Eiji, everyone probably needs some time to themselves after all this had happened," Oishi said comfortingly, "I guess sleeping together won't be really that good an idea." As the mother of Seigaku, Oishi could understand why Eiji would prefer not to sleep alone, but considering that most of the teammates were in strange mood modes it would probably be better for everyone to have some time to think and return to normal mode. Oishi was especially worried about Inui, who had been extraordinarily talkative since he saw Kaidoh's body, and Momo, who had not said a thing since they had approached him and the corpse. He hoped that they would be all right after a good night's sleep.

"Um, okay…" Eiji sighed and gave Oishi a trusting smile as they returned to their respective rooms.

Inui watched this quietly with a bit of a sarcastic smile. At such a time and place, trust really meant nothing.

The kouhai who trusted him the most was dead, and he could not protect him.

-Tuesday-

Most of the eight remaining regulars did not really have much sleep, including poor Eiji who usually slept like a baby. He found himself staring continually at the door, worrying that someone might break through it with an axe or some other lethal weapon. He remembered the night before, when everyone had been having the time of their lives. Only a few hours had passed since Momo had pretended to be a rooster, woke everybody and had a fight with Kaidoh, but it seemed so long ago.

Kaidoh would never fight anyone anymore.

Naturally Momo did not crow like a rooster this morning. It would be just too indecent. Thinking that Momo could be pretty considerate when he wanted to be, Eiji flopped on his bed, looking at the door, weighing his options. The first rays of dawn sunlight shone through his big window, and he felt somehow less afraid than he had been in the dark, even though he knew very well that night wasn't really any more dangerous than the morning.

He seriously considered going out to find some food, but the concept of opening the door just seemed rather frightening. He knew that the door didn't really offer much protection, and if someone needed to kill him very badly he could just break the door down, but the existence of the door offered him a sense of security nevertheless.

Still, Eiji was hungry. And he wanted to go to the restroom. He was afraid to go out of the room, but the call of nature was too hard to resist. He stood at the door, hand on the knob, wishing that Oishi was with him. Unfortunately, Oishi wasn't with him.

Eiji picked up his tennis racket for a weapon, even though it probably wouldn't be much help. He was scared as hell but his bladder was screaming at him. He had to open the door sooner or later, so he might as well just get it over with.

Slowly stepping out into the silent hallway, Eiji decided that everyone was probably still asleep. They did have a rather tiring day after all.

"Maybe everyone's dead and I'm the only one left," he thought to himself. That thought was so shocking that he almost ran back to the comforting safety of his room again, but he quickly discarded this possibility with an indignant toss of his red head.

The ticking of the big clock in the living room could be heard clearly as Eiji made his way cautiously past the kitchen towards the bathroom. The door to the kitchen was ajar, and he glanced casually in the room.

"Oh dear…AVADA KEDAVRA!" He screamed.

No, he did not do that. That was again the unforgivable curse.

"Oh dear…AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" He screamed.

It was not until he heard the others running into the kitchen and gathering around him did he realize that silent tears were pouring down his face.

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading and Happy Chinese New Year. Reviews are very welcome.  


	9. Chapter 9

Tezuka was already awake and fully dressed when he heard Eiji scream. He was always the early bird, the kind of person who was outside jogging or taking walks like old people when others were still in bed. He immediately dashed out of his room into the hallway. Oishi came next, also fully dressed, though it could be because he had completely forgotten to change out of his clothes the previous night. He was shouting Eiji's name and running about in confusion, while Tezuka pounded on everyone's door to wake the others. Therefore, Inui was the first to reach the kitchen. He gently pulled up Eiji, who was sitting on the floor looking dumbfounded, and stood in the doorway waiting for everyone else to arrive.

If you think that Eiji had been under attack of a vicious serial killer, fainted, or dressed himself as a Strike Freedom Gundam, then you have guessed wrong. Nothing of the sort happened. Eiji was quite okay, though shaken, unable to take his eyes off the figure lying on the floor by the refrigerator.

One person got hungry sooner than he did. One person who could not bear the hunger and came out to find food sooner than him.

Therefore, that person died before he did.

Cans of food were everywhere on the floor. Momo, who was always hungry, lay face down in a pool of blood, his head apparently hit by some blunt instrument. Never would he feel hungry anymore. Perhaps dying in a heap of food was quite a happy thing for him. After all, people don't get to die with so much food around them every day.

"But what the heck are _we_ going to eat the next few days?" All the others wondered. Of course, raising such a practical question was too indecent at the moment, so nobody did.

Kawamura, who had arrived last, said confusedly, "Is this… is this also an accident?"

"No," Inui said. "This is a hundred percent murder."

"Murder?" Everyone said in unison. Momo did not seem to them the type of person who would get murdered easily.

"I agree with Inui," Tezuka said, picking up a frozen fish on the floor. "I don't think Momoshiro could have been hit by a fish this hard on the back of his head as he opened the fridge _by accident_."

"Yes. Look, there's blood and hair on the fish. This must be the weapon," Inui said, pointing.

Inui looked incredibly calm. Nobody really blamed him for being so heartlessly impassive though, because they knew that he was not impassive because he was happy to see Momo dead, but impassive because he needed to remain calm to solve the problem. After all, if everyone went crazy and ran around in fright, chaos would ensue and it would probably result in more deaths. They needed the smart Inui to keep everyone sane, so Inui could not let the others down. Tezuka also kept his usual poker face and any arbitrary observer would think that he couldn't care less, unless the arbitrary observer took a look at his hand, which was shaking hard, clutching the frozen fish tightly. He was a responsible captain, and it was up to him to keep his team members in line. Fuji, too, was expressionless. He loved mischief and smiled at tiny misfortunes of other people, but this was not a tiny misfortune. He stayed expressionless because if others saw that even the almighty Fuji collapsed, they would just all fall to pieces. Therefore, he stayed expressionless. The others were not able to be like them and all fell apart to their hearts' content.

"Murdering someone when he is looking for food is too mean," Eiji whimpered. He naively thought that murderers should kill people in one-on-one combats to be fair, instead of sneaking up behind victims when they were looking for food. Sadly, in real life, no murderer would be stupid enough to have one-on-one combats.

"Why the-" Oishi was too stunned to be coherent. He was the mother of Seigaku and knew that he should take care of the others at all times, and he should also put on a poker face like Tezuka, but he just couldn't. Therefore, he gave up all attempts of pretending to be calm.

"This killer must be insane to kill him using _food_," Kawamura murmured blankly.

"I'll never forgive the killer. I'll kill him," Ryoma stated, shaking in fury. Karupin was in his arms, purring in hunger because he wanted to eat the fish. Archimedes the second was also present, making rooster noises to express his sorrow.

"Hmm," Fuji said, eyes slightly open, "here's the cat and the chicken. Where did my dog go?"

"This is not a time to think about your _dog_, Fuji-senpai!" Ryoma cried, tears shimmering in his big eyes. Yes, dogs were man's best friend, but his Momo-senpai was much more important than a dog. Besides, Ryoma was never a dog person. He had been a cat person ever since he had Karupin.

"This is important," Fuji explained. "I let Fujiko out of my room last night because she was bored and didn't want to stay in. The front door was locked, so she couldn't have left the house. If someone broke in our house, we would have heard her bark. When Momo was attacked, we would have heard her bark. If she wasn't around then but found the corpse later, we would still have heard her bark. Thus, since we didn't hear her bark last night, there can only be two solutions. One is that the killer came from outside and Fujiko was killed before Momo was; the other was that the killer was one of us, and she was friendly with the killer and didn't think she needed to bark. In fact, if I am the killer, she would most likely not bark, so I have an even higher possibility of being the killer. Therefore, if we can find her, we can probably learn some information."

"Who in the world says 'I have an even higher possibility of being the killer' with such a normal expression?" Oishi wondered, realizing for the thousandth time in his life that he would never understand Fuji.

Eiji suggested thoughtfully, "Haven't we better go check whether another little monkey figure was gone?"

"Sure. This whole thing gives me the creeps," Kawamura said softly, and he headed towards the living room with Eiji, Oishi and Tezuka.

When they arrived at the living room, they didn't bother to check the monkeys because they were too busy staring at the dog corpse on the floor.

"Guess they also killed the dog," Eiji whispered, kneeling down by the little schnauzer.

Oishi was stupefied. "How could the killer set hands on a _dog_? Isn't that too mean?"

"Let's not tell Fuji about this yet," Tezuka said softly.

"Yeah, let's not tell Fuji-" Kawamura began, but he then realized that Fuji was standing right behind him with a bright smile on his face.

"Uh," Kawamura murmured.

"This is wonderful. Taka-san, make dog-sushi for us tonight, won't you?" Fuji said, his smile getting brighter by the minute.

The others exchanged worried glances. It would be all right if Eiji or Ryoma broke down, they were easier to fix. If Fuji went nuts they would be in serious trouble. They all prayed that Fuji would stay sane.

Ryoma slowly approached them from behind, tears of anger in his eyes. "I will revenge." He said defiantly, "I'll find the murderer and cut off his penis."

Oishi and Kawamura gaped at him. They could not believe that in that small body of his hid such macabre thoughts.

"Echizen, the trouble with you is that you are too kind-hearted," Fuji crooned. "What you should do is saw him in half and make him eat his own entrails."

He then launched into a happy, elaborate description of what he was going to do with the murderer's entrails, and was stopped by Tezuka's light cough.

The others all looked hopefully at Tezuka wishing that he would stop this grotesque conversation, but instead he said decidedly, "I prefer to take off the murderer's ten fingers one by one with a wrench, and then-"

"Tezuka, please!" Oishi said pleadingly. He felt like throwing up. Some color actually appeared on Tezuka's face, and he stopped.

"I was actually getting interested," Inui said sadly.

"So what do we do now?" Eiji asked Inui, who had answers to every question.

"_Somebody_ must be hiding somewhere waiting to take us out, and we are not going to let that happen," Inui said quietly. "We search the island."

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading and reviews are very welcome!

I've killed my two favorite people in a matter of three chapters. Now I'm sad.


	10. Chapter 10

"Couldn't whoever murdered Momoshiro leave the island with a boat?" Oishi asked as the group of seven forlorn teenagers made their way slowly around the small island. "That way, we might not find him or her anywhere on the island."

"Couldn't have," Inui said decidedly. "Considering the strong wind and waves around this island, no simple raft could have made its way on and off the shore. The person would need a boat at least as large as the one we came in. However, there is no evidence that any large boat had harbored around here." He pointed at the place where they had gotten off their boat two days ago.

"This is really like a cheap holiday horror flick, you know," Kawamura commented, shivering slightly at the thought. "Nine young people come to a little island for vacation, and a serial killer who has escaped from jail kills them brutally one by one…"

"I think it's rather like the scary story Inui told us," Eiji said thoughtfully. "You know, the one in which people die one by one and the little Indian figures also disappear one by one."

"Come on, we won't die one by one," Oishi said comfortingly, even though he was likely fearing the same thing himself.

"We should check the inside of the house as well as the outside," Tezuka said out of the blue.

Eiji said in surprise, "Can the murderer be hiding _in _the house?"

"Yes," Inui said, "he or she could have been inside already _before_ we had locked the front door last night. Though Fuji claimed to have checked every possible hiding place before we had dinner, the killer could have sneaked in when we were all outside staring stupidly at Kaidoh's corpse and stayed concealed somewhere. Anyway, wherever he or she is, we will find the person and give him or her a piece of our minds. We have seven people, so we won't be beaten easily if we work together."

"Won't we need some weapons?" Kawamura suggested. Since the hotheaded Momo was not present, he decided to take over this profession and make hotheaded suggestions to the group.

"Yes, we can use some weapons, like our rackets, to protect ourselves," Tezuka said solemnly, pulling out a heavy machine gun, the kind people use in Metal Slug video games.

Everyone gaped. "Where did you get that?"

No, Tezuka did not have a heavy machine gun. It would make the whole story illogical.

"So we get our weapons and beat the hell out of the murderer?" Fuji concluded, looking rather happy at the idea of beating the hell out of somebody.

"Yes," Tezuka said.

"YAY! Ochibi, let's kick the murderer's ass!" Eiji said, glomping Ryoma with a grin.

"Mada mada dane, senpai," Ryoma muttered, hiding his smile under his cap.

"I hate to say this, but before we kick anybody's ass we have to find the killer first," Inui pointed out.

"Yeah… but we will find him or her in no time," Eiji said enthusiastically, brightening up even more.

However, after they searched the island thoroughly and checked every place possible, they found neither a murderer nor any evidence of one. Hours later, they found themselves gathered around the large door Atobe had insisted that should not be opened.

"This is the only place left," Inui said. "The killer may be hiding in here."

"Which means that the killer can pick locks or maybe has the key," Ryoma pondered.

"Maybe _Atobe_ is the killer!"

Oishi frowned, "But I don't think Atobe hates us, does he?"

"As far as I know _nobody_ hates us," Eiji pointed out.

"I don't think anybody will hate Kaidoh or Momoshiro enough to kill them," Tezuka said, "but this person might not be killing for hate. Perhaps he or she is an insane serial killer."

"Well, anyway, we have tried every place possible, but no killer has appeared." Inui concluded. "This is getting more and more intriguing."

"Intriguing? I'd say frightening," Oishi said with a shudder.

"I'm tired," Eiji complained. "I want to take a bath…oh."

"Oh?" Fuji asked with a smile.

"Fuji, it's scary taking a bath alone," Eiji said with large kitten eyes.

"So you want to take a bath with me?" Fuji suggested.

Eiji pondered this. "That will be even more scary…"

In the end he went alone anyway. He thought of the terrible death of Momo, the disappearing little monkeys, he thought of what would happen if a killer came barging into the bathroom when he was taking a bath, and how embarrassing it would be if he died naked… The more he thought about it the less he wanted to take a bath. Yet, he couldn't do without a bath.

Walking into the bathroom with his clothes and towel, Eiji sighed deeply. He checked that the door was securely locked, that there was no secret passage behind the mirror, that there was no corpse hidden inside the bathtub, and finally climbed in, letting the warm water wash away his fear, letting his tears flow with the water coming from the showerhead.

"I wish all this hadn't happened…"

* * *

Dinner passed uneventfully. After bringing Momo back to his room, they scourged the kitchen for food that had not been smeared with blood. Luckily Atobe's house had so much food stocked that they still managed to find a lot of things edible amid all the mess. No one spoke much. Besides the occasional "please pass the celery" or "someone give me a napkin please," all that could be heard was the clanging of the forks and knives. It was so quiet that you could hear people chewing if you tried really hard.

None of them liked the queer silence, but it wasn't like they could do anything else. After all, after all this had happened, you can't expect them to sing and crack jokes and throw their sneakers at each other.

"Um, I'm tired. I want to sleep." Ryoma finally broke the silence with a yawn.

"Wait, Echizen," Tezuka said slowly. "Are you going back to your room to sleep?"

Ryoma rubbed his eyes. "Yes. Where else?"

"Echizen," Tezuka said sternly, in the same tone he had used when he said 'Echizen, you must become the pillar of Seigaku,' "let's sleep together tonight."

AHHH! Tezuka Kunimitsu had just proposed to Echizen Ryoma that they _sleep_ _together_! What exciting news!

"He is right," Inui said, lifting his glasses. "Let's sleep together tonight."

Ryoma stared at them in a state of shock. He had seen several harem Ryoma fan fictions on the Internet, but he hadn't really expected it to happen to him in real life –not so soon, anyway…

"For our safety, we should all sleep together." Inui explained, seeing Ryoma's face.

"Oh," Ryoma said, returning to his seat feeling slightly embarrassed (and disappointed). "Are we sleeping in someone's room or the living room?"

"We probably can't all fit in someone's room," Tezuka said, "and besides it will be too stuffy in a crowded room. We might as well take the living room and maybe keep watch in turns."

Everyone agreed to that and went back to their respective rooms to retrieve their pillows and quilts. They could have quite a grand pillow fight with all the pillows, but without Momo nobody really could be in pillow-fighting mood.

"Well then, good night," Fuji, one of the first few on sentry, smiled at Eiji who had been rolling around for several minutes trying to find a most cozy spot to sleep.

"Mmm, good night, Fuji," Eiji murmured under his blanket. He would have preferred to party the whole night with everyone, but this was not a decent time to party and besides, he was really tired.

"Don't worry, no killer can touch you with me around," Fuji said with a dangerous smile to Tezuka, who looked a bit muddled without his glasses.

"Yes. Do not let your guard down," Tezuka declared, and went to sleep.

* * *

To be continued. Sorry, no bodies in this chapter. Thanks for reading. Reviews are very welcome! 


	11. Chapter 11

It seemed to be a peaceful night. Fuji, Oishi and Kawamura, the three people keeping watch, were able to hear the cicadas singing outside. They had turned off most of the lights and left only two tiny lamps to allow the others to sleep. The three crowded by the lamps, like insects around any source of light, and played cards. This didn't seem like a decent time to play cards, but they had to use some way or another to kill time. They had wanted to play Speed, but the others complained that they were too loud and threw things at them, so they switched to a quieter game of Go Fish.

The clock ticked on happily. Soon, everyone else was asleep. Fuji, who won every game and had to sit around waiting for the other two to finish, passed the time observing Tezuka, who slept without glasses. He did want to observe Inui without glasses too, but that sly guy wore an eye-mask, thus making it impossible to see his eyes. Fuji thought that Inui must have very beautiful eyes and was too shy to let others see them.

Tezuka seemed an entirely different person without glasses. His beloved chicken sat on his chest, as if Tezuka was his nest and he was going to lay eggs on him like a hen soon. It made a surprisingly adorable scene.

"Hey, I came in second again!" Kawamura said happily, having beaten Oishi for the seventh time in a row. He sat beside Fuji as Oishi sat sadly by himself wondering why he lost every card game.

Fuji lowered his voice and pointed. "Look, Taka-san, aren't they adorable?"

Kawamura looked. To him, Tezuka and Inui still looked as scary as they always were, Eiji was completely hidden in his blankets, so he could hardly tell if he was adorable or not. Ryoma, though, was extremely adorable, even more with his large cat sitting contently on his chest, making deep rumbling cat sounds.

"Yeah, they are adorable," he nodded.

"Taka-san," Fuji commented thoughtfully, "you are pretty adorable too."

Kawamura turned visibly red. He could not think of a good comeback to that, so he remained silent.

"What are you guys talking about?" Oishi asked, joining them.

Fuji smiled, "Look, Oishi, aren't they very adorable?"

Oishi looked. Besides Ryoma and his cat, who were always adorable, the others were also very nice on the eyes. Tezuka looked relatively adorable without glasses and his usual sternness, Inui looked less dangerous, and Eiji–even though he couldn't see him---was adorable anyway. They were so adorable that Oishi felt a stomachache coming up again because of all the adorable-ness.

"Well, as we have such adorable teammates, we must protect them with all we have," Fuji concluded with a smile. "No matter what kind of killer we encounter, we won't let the killer harm them, right?"

"Even a killer with thirty-seven arms and needles sticking out all over him?" Oishi queried in surprise.

"That was just a concept, you can't think of it so concretely," Fuji glared at him for ruining the atmosphere. "And this was one of the rare times I was trying to be serious…"

At this moment, Eiji murmured "ah good, you have four nipples" and slung his arm over Ryoma. Ryoma, being hit, groaned in his sleep, "Karupin, bad kitty!"

"Mrowr," Karupin protested innocently.

"Feed you later," Ryoma muttered, hugging the cat tighter and fell back into deep sleep.

Fuji, Oishi and Kawamura watched this scene and all smiled. Deep down in their hearts they swore to themselves that they would definitely protect their teammates, no matter what it took.

---

Echizen Ryoma had a dream in the middle of the night.

He dreamed that the Seishun Gakuen baseball team had a friendly game with the New York Yankees. He stood beside A. Rod, their third-base player, and blocked his view, so he missed every ball. In the end, Seishun Gakuen won the game, and he became good friends with the third-base player on the team. Suddenly, to his surprise, his new friend picked up a can of shaving cream and smeared it all over Ryoma's face. Ryoma was so humiliated! He had to hide his face with an umbrella for the whole day.

"Why didn't I just wash it off anyway?" Ryoma wondered and snapped suddenly back to reality. It was very quiet. He could see dim lights at the other end of the hallway, and heard talking in very low voices. He guessed that it must be the senpai-tachi who were keeping watch.

Soon he fell into an uneasy slumber again and found himself in a whole new world. He was in a city that was struck by a tornado, but he was unwilling to stay underground hiding because he simply had to go out to meet Federer, the famous tennis player and his idol. He set out in the dead of the night on his bike, dressed as Cinderella in the Disney series. It was raining cats and dogs, and his favorite Federer poster got all wet. He was so sad.

He woke up again to the realization that Federer was not his idol and dressing as Cinderella was humiliating. Ryoma was not a heavy sleeper. Sometimes, the smallest noise could wake him. Besides, he often had to get up at midnight to feed his hungry cat (Why do cats always have to be hungry at night and sleep in the day? He had wondered for his whole life.) Thus, he was used to waking up frequently at nights.

He opened his eyes, seeing his Fuji-senpai and Kawamura-senpai having a quiet conversation down the hallway. They were probably the ones who were talking back when he woke from his previous dream.

Ryoma wondered why Kawamura was holding a badminton racket. Or why he had a badminton racket at all, for that matter.

In all his confusion Ryoma fell asleep again. This time he managed to sleep all the way till morning. His dream was extremely bloody this time though. Fuji-senpai had tied him up with ropes and proceeded to throw him into a heart-shaped lake full of blood and wine and pieces of people's bodies. Ryoma pleaded, "Please let me go! If you let me go, I'll do anything! I'll fry my cat and eat him, or cut off Tezuka-buchou's head and hollow it into a teapot, or dig out Kirihara's eyes and sell them in an auction. Anything, as long as you let me go!"

Even in his dream, Ryoma wondered why every dream he had was more grotesque than the previous one.

---

Before dawn, Tezuka woke up to the hungry noises his chicken was making. His chicken was strangely like a cat in that they both got hungry at night as well as during the day. Tezuka didn't think that normal chickens ought to act that way. He told none of the regulars about the fact that he woke up at nights to feed his chicken. If they knew, they would have laughed their heads off, so Tezuka kept it a secret.

Rather accustomed to the hungry calls of Archimedes the Second, Tezuka got up instinctively and walked to his room on autopilot. He did not feel very much awake, probably due to the fact that he always fed his chicken and went straight back to sleep. The whole procedure did not require any brains.

He found his chicken feed in his bag and fed his chicken. It was strangely quiet. There was no sound except the content eating noises his chicken made. If a needle fell on the floor Tezuka would hear it clearly. He wondered why he didn't see any of the three who were supposed to be keeping watch. As he thought about this, a strangled noise came from outside his room.

"Who's there?" Snapping into alert mode, Tezuka looked out of the room. His accurate tennis playing sixth sense told him that something was not right. He did not have his glasses on, and all he could make out was two figures, one strangling the other, and the strangler also had a knife. He realized that the victim must be a teammate, because of a glimpse of the Seigaku jersey.

Who was the murderer? How did he (Tezuka assumed from shape and size that the strangler was a he) get in without being seen? Where did the sentries go? Could they have already been killed?

But this was not a time to think about these questions.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" Throwing down the box of chicken feed in his hand, the brave, righteous Tezuka Kunimitsu, always responsible for his team members, ran toward the two figures.

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. There's something wrong with my computer screen. Everything looks green on it :( Does anyone know how to fix it? (cries) 


	12. Chapter 12

-Wednesday-

"Good morning, guys," Eiji yawned, sitting up from his temporary bed on the floor.

"Good morning-" Kawamura began but stopped in surprise. He was surprised because Fuji, half-asleep, happened to be leaning on him, and they were sitting on the living room cupboard. Yes, not by the living room cupboard, but _on_ the living room cupboard. Which meant that they were suspended some two-and-a-half meters above the ground. He had absolutely no idea how they got there.

Fuji, however, was relatively calm and regarded their current position as if it was the most normal in the world. He sat up and smoothed his hair. "Oh dear, we have fallen asleep, haven't we? We were supposed to keep watch. That was too careless."

It was indeed a curious thing. Fuji, Kawamura and Oishi had planned to stand guard for half the night, and then wake the others to change duty. Yet, they have somehow drifted off to sleep before the time to switch arrived and failed to alert the others. That meant that there was a very large period of time in which no one was keeping watch, and it was quite dangerous. Fuji wondered how they could have let their guards down like that.

"We must have been really tired," Oishi mumbled, looking sorry and embarrassed for being so irresponsible when the lives of his teammates had depended on them.

Nevertheless, they couldn't stay sorry and embarrassed for long. After all, the sun was shining, they had managed to pass another night without event, and everyone was happy.

"If we are careful the next few days and wait for the boat to come get us on Sunday, we can probably make it out of here together," Fuji remarked with a smile. He always liked sunshine.

Inui, though, broke the blissful happiness with one single sentence. "Wait, have any of you seen Tezuka?"

Everyone looked around, then at each other, and finally they all turned to look in the direction of Tezuka's room in unison.

"There's a piece of cardboard on it," Eiji, who had the best eyes, exclaimed and ran over to see it. It was a plain piece of cardboard, the kind seen every day. A few words were written with red paint.

Kawamura asked, worried, "What does it say?"

"It says '_I'm going hiking_'," Eiji reported. "What a healthy guy. He even left a note for us to keep us from worrying."

"That's good," Oishi sighed in relief. "Tezuka does love hiking-"

"Wait," Ryoma questioned skeptically, "why will buchou go out hiking alone at a time like this with a possibility of being killed by an insane murderer? Wouldn't that be too careless? Besides, he could have just left a sticky note or something, instead of using cardboard and paint. We can't even be sure whether this is his handwriting."

"You have a point," Oishi frowned, becoming worried all over again.

"These are minor questions really." Inui reasoned, lifting his glasses. "The real problem is that there are no mountains on this island."

"Oh," Eiji breathed, turning visibly pale.

"Okay, let's go find Tezuka. Stay together, we must not let the murderer have any chance to harm us," Oishi announced, trying to be as good a vice-captain as possible. Since the captain was not around, it was his job to act responsibly.

The others all tried to be the best possible teammates, and ran around checking the interior of the house. Within minutes they decided that Tezuka couldn't be inside. Therefore, the group uneasily made their way towards the front door. With a quick scan they immediately realized that there were only seven little monkeys left on the shelf.

Kawamura and Fuji reached the door a tiny bit sooner than the others did. They pulled open the front door and saw Tezuka almost at the same time. He was lying by the fake stone-mountain in the Chinese garden. Kawamura felt Fuji, who was usually very strong mentally, grasp his sleeve, almost about to fall down. He couldn't do anything but let Fuji hold his sleeve tightly.

It was as if their brains stopped working. Tezuka had always been the one to keep everyone in order and stop people from freaking out. Even though they hadn't noticed, they realized that they had always naively believed that things would turn out all right as long as Tezuka was there.

Now that Tezuka was gone, the world was torn apart.

"Buchou!" Ryoma came running towards them tearfully, throwing away all his composure and dignity. "Who… what…how…"

Oishi could only shake his head, holding his stomach. Everyone stood in silence, staring at the unbelievable scene. A sharp knife had been thrust through the chest of Tezuka, their beloved captain. The blood hadn't even dried up yet.

Everyone was rendered speechless and would have remained that way for the whole morning. That is, if the silence had not been broken by a chicken.

"Cluck, cluck, cluck?" Archimedes the Second asked. What he meant was, "Excuse me, where's the big man who always feeds me?"

"Um-" Oishi, being the nice guy he was, quickly stood in front of the chicken, shielding him from the tragic sight of his owner. "Um, your owner, uh-"

"Oishi, stop trying to hide the truth from this chicken," Inui said. "He doesn't even understand what you are saying."

"Uh, yeah, sorry," Oishi muttered an apology, red-faced. He felt like he was going crazy. Sane people do not go around trying to tell white lies to chickens.

Fuji sighed. "Come here," he said kindly, stooping down to pick up the poor Archimedes the Second and cradled him in his arms. Archimedes the Second was still in denial. He could not believe that the nice man who fed him was gone forever. Still, even though Fuji was not the nice man who fed him, he felt safe and warm in his arms.

"_This person is a friend of the nice man who feeds me,"_ Archimedes the Second thought to himself._ "I can definitely trust him."_

"We can have chicken tonight," Fuji chuckled. "Do you guys want him fried or grilled?"

Archimedes the Second began to cry. No one understood him, because he was a chicken.

Inui, as always, was the one who dragged everyone back into reality. He was weird, yes, but dependable.

He began with a straight-to-the-point question. "Fuji, Oishi, Kawamura, weren't you three supposed to keep watch until three a.m. and then wake us to change duty? Why didn't you do so?"

"Sorry, we fell asleep," Oishi confessed, looking very regretful. They had thought it would be impossible to fall asleep easily in such a situation, but apparently it wasn't.

"I woke up a few times last night," Ryoma piped up, "and saw Fuji-senpai and Kawamura-senpai talking down the hallway. I'm guessing it was some time around one a.m. or so. Perhaps it was after-"

"We didn't talk down the hallway at all last night," Kawamura put in, looking surprised. "I'm positive we stayed in the living room the whole time."

"You did. You were holding a badminton racket, Kawamura-senpai."

"Was I? But I don't even have a badminton racket," Kawamura objected, looking more confused by the minute.

"I don't remember doing this either," Fuji shook his head. "It might be a dream."

"It's not a dream. I'm certain of it," Ryoma protested.

"Why did the three sentries fall asleep mysteriously? Who killed the strong buchou? Why did the twelve-year-old prodigy see the ghosts of his senpai-tachi walking at midnight? How interesting. So many questions," Inui murmured, scribbling furiously in his notebook.

"They aren't ghosts. They are still alive," Oishi pointed out.

Inui raised an eyebrow. "How can you know for sure?"

"Um, I'm alive. I ought to know," Kawamura claimed nervously.

Eiji asked, in a daze, "What do we do now?"

Inui looked up from his notebook. "We search the island again."

"Again? But we have already done a search yesterday," Ryoma protested.

"We must have missed some place," Inui stated. "You see, if we cannot find the murderer anywhere, it can only mean that _one or more of us_ committed the murders."

Everyone stared at him open-mouthed. A few of them had considered this possibility before, but they had refused to believe it. Now, when put in words, all in a sudden it seemed very real.

"I don't believe it's any of us," Fuji shrugged, plastering a light smile on his face. "Come on, let's search the island."

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. My computer screen is still greenish.(cries) 


	13. Chapter 13

It had been sunny moments ago. But not long after they had begun their search, it began to rain.

The search was of no avail. All of them kept a discreet silence, secretly considering what Inui had told them. The murderer could be one or more of them. No matter how hard they tried to deny it, it certainly did seem the most logical explanation.

Ryoma broke the silence by pointing and asking, "Hey, what's that?"

_That_ was something blue-colored, hanging high up a faraway tree.

"Oh no, can it be-" Oishi cried and turned around to count his teammates. He was relieved to find that everyone was there and therefore the blue thing couldn't have been another body.

"It's a t-shirt," Inui said, stretching and taking the blue piece of clothing down from the branch. Ryoma watched, envying his senpai's height. He wished he was that tall.

It was indeed a t-shirt. It was small and white with sky-blue sleeves and a yellow smiley-face. The smiley-face would have been cute at some other time, but under the circumstances it seemed somewhat eerie. Inui checked the size tag. "Echizen, is this yours?"

Ryoma shrugged in reply. "Why would I wear a t-shirt with a smiley-face on it?"

"Well, judging from the size, it can't belong to anybody else," Inui explained.

"It wasn't here yesterday," Fuji asserted. "We would have noticed it if it was."

"Yes. This is another curious point to consider," Inui muttered, scribbling furiously in his notebook. His notebook was the only thing he could trust, the only solid thing he could depend on in this situation. He loved his notebook so much that he wanted to marry it. He wanted to be with it till the end of the world.

Kawamura asked Ryoma, "Can it be that Karupin stole your t-shirt and played with it on this tree? See, there are animal prints here on the ground."

"So there is. That's a new discovery," Inui commented and stooped down to study the tracks.

Ryoma shook his head, "That's not possible. Like I said, I don't even have a t-shirt like that one. Besides, that fat cat Karupin probably can't climb this high."

Eiji suggested, "Can it be Archimedes the second?"

"No, these footprints do not belong to chickens. Nor cats, for that matter," Inui claimed.

"What animal do they belong to then?" Kawamura queried wonderingly.

"A zebra," Inui stated solemnly, and was beaten up by everyone because he had the nerve to crack a joke –one that was not funny, too- at such a time.

The second search of the island was a failure again. In the rain, the regulars brought Tezuka back to his room, arranging his body on the bed. After doing this, they lingered by the bed, unable to look away from their captain's corpse. Even when dead, Tezuka had a certain aura around him that made them want to bow down and respect him.

"I'm sorry," Inui murmured softly. Yes, Inui Sadaharu admitted that he was sorry and meant it. It was way too out of character. What had their world come to?

"Don't be. I'm the one who should be sorry," Oishi whispered, putting a hand on Inui's shoulder.

"I let my guard down. I shouldn't have gone to sleep without making sure everything was all right, and I shouldn't have put on an eye mask," Inui mumbled, his head down.

"We should be the ones to blame. We should have kept watch, and we slept instead. It's not your fault at all," Fuji insisted firmly.

As a result, everyone collapsed on their knees since they suddenly all felt very guilty for their captain's death, even though they hadn't directly caused it. Tezuka was, after all, their captain ---their captain who told them countless times not to let their guard down. But they had let their guard down, and now Tezuka was gone. So was the spirit that Tezuka had succeeded to maintain when he was alive, the very spirit that made them a team and stay together as one.

Without their captain, they suddenly realized that they didn't trust each other anymore.

---

"There are too many strange points concerning Tezuka's death," Inui cleared his throat as they sat around the dining table ready for lunch. "I must try to get to the bottom of these three deaths. I am going to start by asking you all for alibis."

Fuji raised an eyebrow, "Alibis? Do you suspect that it was one of us who killed the three of them?

"It's as if you are positive that one of us is a murderer," Eiji whimpered sadly. His trusting nature made it hard for him to believe that there were murderers among his teammates.

"I also wish that it isn't one of us," Inui watched his exhausted but tense teammates and unconsciously softened his tone. "That's why I want to hear your alibis. I need to be sure that you are all clear of suspicion. Is it okay?"

Eiji nodded tearfully with a furtive glance at the front door, as if he was afraid that someone vicious would appear from behind it.

"We will start from Kaidoh's death," Inui began, opening his notebook. "Who is the last one who saw him the day he died? We need to know the specific time the crime –or accident- happened."

"Well, after lunch we went to the beach," Eiji mused, frowning in thought, "I was playing by the beach until around three. Kaidoh left somewhere between two and three."

"Yes, I remember that too," Ryoma supported. "I also stayed until after three."

Inui lifted his glasses, "Can anyone guarantee your actions in that period?"

"I left with Eiji," Oishi put in, "but after we changed back into our clothes I stayed in my room until I decided to cook dinner. I can't vouch for his actions in that period, and no one can vouch for mine."

"Me and Momo-senpai threw seaweed at each other until after three o'clock. After that we played video games together for some time and then went separate ways to explore the island," Ryoma shrugged uncomfortably, looking at his feet. "So… I guess I don't have someone to vouch for me."

Inui looked at his kouhai in pity before saying softly, "Sorry, since no one can vouch for your actions, this can't be considered a valid alibi."

"I was strolling around with Taka-san by the bamboo forest," Fuji said. "Taka-san went to cook with Oishi at around five while I looked around the house. No one can prove that."

"Hmm," Inui looked at his notes. "According to the way the body has hardened and the blood has dried, I think Kaidoh died between two and four. Kawamura is the only one with a fully confirmed alibi around this period of time, but we can't kick him out of the suspect list still."

Kawamura was surprised. "Why?"

"There can be more than one murderer," Inui stated.

Fuji's eyes opened and he looked piercingly at Inui. "Are you implying that Taka-san and I killed Kaidoh and covered up for each other?"

"I didn't mean that," Inui quickly replied for fear of provoking Fuji. "I'm just trying out all the possibilities. Judging from the way Momoshiro and Tezuka are killed, there is a high percentage that it was done by more than one person among us. I hate to say it, but three or four of us can very well be murderers, lying to cover up for each other."

"But if the killer's among us-" Ryoma began, suddenly unable to contain his overwhelming anger. "How dare he? How _could_ he? They are our _teammates_, for God's sake!"

As Oishi tried vainly to comfort him, Ryoma realized that it was indeed very strange. Anyone who knew Kaidoh, Momo and Tezuka understood that they were very, very nice people. It was unimaginable that someone would want to kill them at all. Still, if the murderer had decided to kill everyone like in Inui's scary story, starting from these three did seem like a logical choice. After all, the later the death, the longer the torture. To end it early for the three nice people certainly made sense.

Running this theory in his head, Ryoma came to the sad realization that if this was the reason, it meant that he was not considered a nice person. Ryoma sighed because he was actually very nice. He was smug, but nice nevertheless.

The more he thought about it, the more Ryoma worried that the broccoli on the plate in front of him could be poisoned. Therefore, he didn't try to take any. He never liked broccoli anyway.

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. I'd really like to know what you think.

Random question from a friend: After reading this chapter, I noticed that besides that blue t-shirt and the Renaissance-period style dress, you have rarely described the regulars' clothes. Why didn't you describe their clothes?

Ans: Because the regulars don't have any clothes on. As a matter of fact, they are running about the island naked.

I guess the fic should be rated R because of this.


	14. Chapter 14

While Ryoma was wondering whether the broccoli on the dining table was poisoned, the others had forgotten all about checking out each other's alibis and were animatedly discussing the possibility of the murderer being one of them.

"None of us holds any grudges towards buchou, Kaidoh or Momo. Why will we ever kill them?" Eiji was reasoning, munching his broccoli. Ryoma stared in horror as he watched his senpai swallow the food, almost sure that he would drop dead in three seconds. He didn't.

"It can be a grudge that nobody knew about," Inui posed, lifting his glasses.

"No one has a secret grudge against _me_, I hope." Ryoma muttered.

"How do you know, ochibi? Someone might hate you because you are always so smug." Eiji suggested, slinging a friendly arm on Ryoma's shoulder.

"But this can't be the reason," Ryoma pointed out. "Kaidoh-senpai wasn't even smug."

Oishi frowned thoughtfully. "Why will anyone kill anyone without a motive?"

"Maybe Inui killed them to gather data on everyone's reactions towards brutal murders," Eiji exclaimed on a whim.

"He can't be that sadistic, can he? I don't think he's that kind of person," Kawamura argued in Inui's defense.

"Thank you for speaking up for me," Inui grinned wickedly, "though I _did_ collect some pretty good data these three days."

"Wow, you are scary, Inui." Eiji whispered.

"Well, I'm not the only one with a motive, Kikumaru. You could have killed Momoshiro because you hate him for always making you treat him to burgers," Inui quipped with a mysterious smile.

Kawamura pointed out, "If that's true, why kill Kaidoh and Tezuka?"

"Perhaps he hated Kaidoh because his father stole his uncle's job. It's hard to say with motives," Inui shrugged.

"I won't do _that_," Eiji cried.

"Who knows? We are talking about someone who could be insane." Inui concluded. "Anyway, we should stick together at all times from now on. Since one of us could be the murderer, it is not safe to hang around with just one person at a time. It is recommended that at least three people are required anywhere you go. That way, we can watch out for each other."

The others nodded. Without Tezuka around, Inui was the one person to depend on. As long as they could be sure that they were on the same side, of course. But after Ryoma considered what Inui suggested, he suddenly had the most frightening thought.

"How can you know that only one of us is the murderer? If there are two of them, even if we go anywhere three at a time, it won't be safe anyway. What if there're not only two of them? There can be three of them. Four of them. Or maybe everyone here except me is a murderer. How can I know for sure?" He demanded. "The safest thing anyone can do is pass the time in their room alone."

"Come on, this is not the time to suspect each other. We have to trust each other, okay?" Oishi attempted to persuade Ryoma, holding his stomach. He tried very hard not to show his pain. If others saw he had a stomachache, they would all worry. As it was they were all worried enough, and he didn't want to add to the trouble.

"How can I trust anybody in such a situation?" Ryoma countered. "Stop pretending that you are such a nice guy, Oishi-senpai. The nicest guys are the most dangerous ones." _And Oishi-senpai also ate a lot of broccoli. Everyone who ate broccoli must be a murderer. Everyone except me ate broccoli, and therefore they are all murderers. Ah damn. Ryoma, you're alone in the midst of five crazy murderers._

"Please trust me, I really _am_ a nice guy! Why will I kill anybody?" Oishi implored beseechingly.

"I can't trust you unless I have proof that you are a nice guy, senpai."

Oishi thought for a moment for any valid proof and finally brightened up. "When I asked girls to go out with me, more than fifty of them went 'Sorry, Oishi-kun, you are really a nice guy, but I can't go out with you.' Isn't that enough to prove that I'm a nice guy?"

Eiji stared in shock. "Fifty? Just how many girls had you asked out anyway?"

"Um… somewhere around five hundred." Oishi counted on his fingers.

"What did the 450 others say to you then?"

"They usually tell me that I have an egg-shaped head and-"

"STOP IT!" Unable to tolerate this nonsense anymore, Ryoma slammed his fist on the table. "Momo-senpai is dead, and you are talking about _girls_! I hope you all rot in hell!" With that he disappeared into his room. The others heard the click of his door lock in their stupefied silence.

"I'm sorry. I thought that it would be all right to lighten up the atmosphere," Oishi hung his head in shame. "I didn't quite expect him to get this angry."

"I don't see anything wrong with Echizen's running and hiding. I think it's a normal reaction to hide in his room rather than hang around with people who could be brutal murderers," Fuji remarked.

Oishi stuttered nervously, "But what if the killer isn't among us after all and is waiting to kill Echizen inside his room right now?"

"The percentage of that happening is low," Inui stated calmly from aside. "I do not believe that anyone else will die today."

"Why?" Eiji gasped in surprise. How could Inui be sure of that? Could he be the murderer? But then, if he were the murderer, there was no point of admitting that out loud, was there?

"I believe that I have discovered the pattern of these murders," Inui announced.

Everyone gaped at him.

"You've discovered the pattern?" This was Oishi.

"What is the pattern?" And this was Kawamura.

"There's a _pattern_?" Eiji.

"Tell us about it," Fuji smiled, looking intrigued. He stood up to collect the dishes on the table, but his eyes never left Inui.

"Do you guys remember the tale I told about people dying one by one in turn according to a rhyme? You know, the one in which the little Indian statues disappear with the deaths." Inui said, gesturing towards the little monkey figures standing on the shelf in the living room. He decided then and there to sit on the sofa, hug a whale plushie and play creepy music on the stereo to add to the effect. The others had no choice but to move to the living room with him, except Fuji and Kawamura who were collecting everyone's dishes to stack them in the kitchen sink.

They all remembered. They should -Inui told them the story, like, three days ago. How could they not remember?

"Yes, it fits. The monkey figures _are_ disappearing one by one," Oishi nodded. He was hugging a dog plushie. "But Momoshiro didn't die the way the rhyme said, in his sleep. The other two didn't die like what your rhyme said either."

"I didn't say that it was the same rhyme. What I'm thinking of is a rhyme that children in Taiwan chant. Have any of you heard of it?"

"How can we have heard of it? We're Japanese, remember?" Eiji pointed out. He was hugging a Tezuka plushie. We have no idea why they had such a plushie.

"Doesn't matter," Inui flipped to a page in his notebook. "Here, I'll recite it."

"_On the first day of the week, the little monkey wears a brand-new dress._

_On the second day of the week, the little monkey's kitchen is a mess._

_On the third day of the week, the little monkey climbs Mt. Everest._

_On the fourth day of the week, the little monkey takes a test._

_On the fifth day of the week, the little monkey will dance for you._

_On the sixth day of the week, the little monkey goes to Douliu._

_On the seventh day of the week, the little monkey paints the house yellow._

_On the eighth day of the week, the little monkey plays the cello._

_On the ninth day of the week, the little monkey drinks beer before going to bed._

_On the tenth day of the week, the little monkey wakes up to find himself dead._"

"So," Inui concluded to everybody, "since this is the third day of the week(1), I don't think anything terrible will happen until Thursday."

"Makes sense," Kawamura was dumbfounded because the rhyme not only made sense, but fitted the previous incidents perfectly. Kaidoh died in a new dress, Momo was killed in the kitchen, and there was that cardboard on Tezuka's door that said he was going hiking. The disappearing monkey figures also fitted the pattern.

"And you don't really have to worry about tomorrow either," Inui continued, "because I'm obviously the only one here who's preparing for a test, which means that the percentage of me dying tomorrow is quite high."

Oishi had to admire how Inui said this without flinching one bit. He wondered if he could act this calm if it were him.

"You must be very careful!" Eiji exclaimed worriedly. "Question. What's Douliu?"

"It's the name of a town in Taiwan. It translates literally into 'six funnels'(2)." Inui explained.

"How can the person who dies on the sixth day go there then?" Eiji wondered.

"He probably won't really go to Douliu," Oishi reasoned. "Tezuka didn't really go hiking either, and come to think of it, I don't believe any of us knows how to play a cello."

Eiji persisted, "But buchou died beside a fake Chinese stone-mountain, and as for the cello, the murderer can put it beside the corpse as a symbol or something. Douliu isn't that easy to represent… I don't suppose the murderer will be lame enough to put six funnels by the corpse or something, will he?"

"How will I know? I'm so not the murderer!" Oishi replied.

"Six funnels seem like a good idea to me," Inui muttered and put it down in his notebook. They all threw broccoli at him because he was talking as if he was happily admitting that he was the murderer.

* * *

TBC. 

(1)Yes, the first day of the week is supposed to be Sunday, but in Chinese there's a 'one' in the words that stand for Monday and a 'two' in the words for Tuesday and so on. That's what the original fic was based on, so it will be very inconvenient to change it, and changing it will also harm the plot. Therefore, in this fic the first day of the week is Monday, the second Tuesday and so on. I'm really, really sorry about the inconvenience.

(2)It doesn't translate wholly into that, only partly. Again, sorry for the inconvenience. I'm very sorry about putting a Chinese town name in here, but it's crucial for the story.

I know the rhyme is a bit lame. It's the part I've been dreading to translate throughout the whole fic. I had to alter the meanings of some places to make things rhyme (and some places don't really rhyme, I know.) without harming the plot. It was heck difficult. So, sorry if it doesn't seem at all poetic or rhyme-ish.

Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome:)


	15. Chapter 15

"We have to get Echizen out of his room," Inui pointed out. "How else are we going to talk over our alibis?"

"You have a point there. I'll fetch him," Fuji grinned. He picked up a kitchen knife for a weapon and headed towards Ryoma's bedroom.

"Why a weapon? Echizen's not a lion or any other dangerous species, is he?" Oishi sweatdropped.

"It's just to be on the safe side," Fuji shrugged. He knocked on the door. "Echizen, come on out. We are playing musical chairs. You don't want to miss it."

"That won't work. He wouldn't want to play musical chairs," Inui reasoned.

"Fine. Echizen, come on out. We are painting Karupin pink. You don't want to miss it."

Ryoma immediately came sulking out of his room.

"Good, let's continue," Inui nodded, satisfied, pencil posed over his notebook pages. "Even though it's true that there might be more than one murderer, and alibis won't be of any use that way, we still need to collect as much information as we can, so we can figure out the truth. Therefore, everyone, please tell me honestly what happened on the morning Momoshiro was killed. Of course, if you are the murderer, you don't have to tell me the truth, because if someone says truthfully 'I killed Momoshiro that morning,' that will be stupid."

Everyone threw broccoli at him because it was too obvious that the murderer wouldn't say that.

"So let's start with Kikumaru, who found the corpse," Inui requested, wiping pieces of broccoli and vegetable oil from his shirt with a napkin.

"I woke up and wanted to go to the bathroom, so I went to the bathroom and on the way I saw… I saw…" Eiji couldn't finish, so he left the rest for their imagination.

"Hmm, did you come out of your room in the night, or hear anything strange?"

"No."

"Okay. Echizen, you have the room next to Momoshiro's. Did you hear anything strange? According to my tests, if something happens in a room, it can be heard in the neighboring one."

"No." Ryoma still looked sulky.

"I see. Karupin, you also have the room next to Momoshiro's. Have you heard anything strange?"

"No," Karupin said sadly.

Ignore the above sentence. That couldn't have happened.

"What about you, Oishi?"

"If I had heard anything, I would have gone to investigate," Oishi sighed regretfully.

"Same here," Fuji agreed.

"I didn't hear anything either," Kawamura shook his head.

"I think what happened to buchou is more worthy of discussing," Ryoma said. "After all, we were all sleeping together that day, yet buchou still got killed. It's weird how the sentries all fell asleep, and I'm positive I saw Kawamura-senpai and Fuji-senpai talking in the hallway. It was definitely not a dream."

"But we really didn't talk in the hallway," Kawamura promised, "and I don't understand how I got above that cupboard in the morning. Why would I ever go up there?"

"This means that someone is lying," Inui decided.

"I'm so not lying!" Ryoma shouted defiantly.

"Neither am I." Kawamura looked genuinely confused.

"I think we should try it for another night," Inui declared thoughtfully. "We will split into two groups of three tonight, and keep watch in turn."

"But if the three people awake were all murderers, the ones asleep will be easily killed, won't they?" Ryoma argued. "That's way too dangerous."

"Well then, we can split into three groups of two, and-"

"That's practically the same thing, senpai."

"Six groups of one? One sleeps, five keep watch."

"That's even more dangerous."

"Or we can try one group of six. Six sleep, zero keeps watch."

"That's, like, more dangerous than the above combined."

"How about one-half groups of twelve?"

"We don't have twelve people. What are one-half groups anyway?"

"I have a suggestion," Fuji piped up. "Why don't we just all stay awake tonight and play truth or dare?"

"Cool!" Eiji, who loved to play truth or dare, said. "But if we ask the murderer if he is the murderer, he will have to tell us, won't he?"

"You are too naïve, Eiji. Who ever tells the truth when playing truth or dare? I never do," Fuji retorted.

"What? You never do? I always tell the truth," Eiji exclaimed, feeling betrayed.

"Staying up all night can be the safest way," Inui nodded in approval. "After all, the two previous deaths happened when we were asleep. If we play video games, play soccer or watch DVDs, we can probably manage."

"YAY!" Everyone shouted and decided to go back to their respective rooms to bring out their Game Boys, Monopoly boards and pillows, so they could party all night. It was one of their strong points, being able to party all night even in such a situation.

"Remember to bring your warm clothes, since it can be cold at night." Oishi told everyone. "And, who was it that started the broccoli throwing anyway? Everyone has food on their shirts now. We might as well change."

With that, they all went back to their rooms to change out of their ruined clothes. Oishi stood in front of his wardrobe, considering his options carefully. He pulled out his soccer shorts at first, but then realized that they couldn't really be playing soccer at night even though Inui said so. Playing soccer in the living room would be way too stupid, and besides they would knock everything into pieces and Atobe wouldn't like that.

As Oishi rummaged through his clothes, he saw his Seigaku jersey. A sudden sense of unease overwhelmed him.

The Seigaku tennis club was no more. They would never win any games together. They would never be a team again. They didn't even have a captain anymore.

Even though everyone looked reasonably happy on the surface, Oishi knew that it was all just a façade. Alone in his room, he knew that he didn't need to be optimistic like he was in front of his teammates. Therefore, he chose to sit down on his bed and sigh deeply, letting his emotions flow.

Maybe he shouldn't have come on this trip after all. No, not maybe. He definitely shouldn't have come on this trip at all.

Suddenly he heard knocking at his door. He stood up, wondering who it could be. He hadn't changed yet, and he didn't think the others could have done so in such little time.

"Who's there?" he asked. He knew that it was pointless to ask –if it was the murderer, asking who he was wouldn't help at all- but he asked nevertheless.

"Oishi, I'm so scared…"

Hearing the trembling voice of his doubles partner, Oishi felt something tear at his heart. Quickly, he opened the door and pulled the tearful Eiji inside. He should have been worried that Eiji was a murderer, but he trusted him. He guessed that Eiji was probably like him, pretending to be enthusiastic around other people, not fully realizing the gravity of the situation until he was alone.

"It's all right. I'm here."

"But- but Kaidoh and Momo and buchou- they are all gone. How can it be all right?"

"Everything's gonna be all right," Oishi said soothingly, gently patting his redheaded friend, who was now sobbing uncontrollably in his arms.

"But… but everyone's gonna die!"

Oishi pulled Eiji closer, trying his best to make his own voice seem steady. "Don't worry, you'll be okay. I'll protect you. The point of having a partner is that there's always someone to cover you, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah…" Eiji murmured softly. "We're the Golden Pair."

"Okay, go back to your room and change, won't you? We are sure going to have a fun night," Oishi whispered, wiping Eiji's tears away with a tissue. "You know I won't let anything happen to you."

"Thank you, Oishi," Eiji managed a smile. "See you later."

After Eiji left, Oishi flopped down on his bed again with a frown. 

Oishi was always the worrisome kind of person, and he was used to having stomachaches when he worried about things. He discovered that he had never had such a horrible stomachache before. He concluded that he must be really, really worried.

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very much appreciated.

To Kage Tsume: Thanks for the review:D I'ts so cool that you're reading that novel in class. I wish we had classes like this too... (sobs) 

To Yukari: Thanks for the review:D I'm so glad you liked it! I'll try not to make the regulars too insane in the future.


	16. Chapter 16

After everyone changed and packed the things they needed, all ready for their slumber party, they came to the sudden realization that it was four in the afternoon and they need to make dinner. Therefore, Oishi volunteered to cook for everyone.

"Remember, people, that in the tale _And Then There Were None_, a victim is killed by food poisoning," Inui warned. Everyone decided that he had a point, and all raised their hands to volunteer also.

Oishi obviously looked sad. "Don't you believe me, guys?"

"Sorry, we've got to be careful. I suggest that we all watch while Oishi cooks," Fuji said decidedly.

Oishi didn't actually like this kind of arrangement, but it was something he couldn't argue against. It was the first time he realized what huge pressure it was to have five pairs of eyes trained on him when he was cooking. He was under so much pressure that his hand slipped once and almost sliced Eiji's hand in half. Blood was everywhere and Eiji started screaming madly. Ryoma, who had left the kitchen briefly to look for his cat, heard the screams, falsely assumed that someone was under attack and came running into the kitchen with a fire extinguisher as a weapon. As a result there was foam all over the food and Oishi had to start all over again.

While Oishi started his second round of high-tension cooking, Inui tried every possible way he could come up with to contact the people in the mainland. However, there was neither a computer nor telephone on the island, and he couldn't get a signal with anyone's cell phone.

"We can make a fire. With Taka-san here-" Oishi suggested as he carried out his dishes to the dining room.

"We're too far out, they couldn't see us. It's raining, and besides even if we manage to make a fire in the rain and people do see us, they will probably think that we are throwing a bonfire party or something crazy," Inui shook his head regretfully.

Feeling very discouraged, they had their dinner. The dinner passed peacefully, without event. No one died after eating anything, no one got into violent fights, and no one ate Oishi's overcooked fish because it was a disaster. Oishi was secretly crying inside but he didn't want to let anyone see.

The so-called slumber party began with a few card games, a few wrestling matches and a few rounds of video games. And then, they got tired of competitive games, because it was so easy to get tired of competitive games without Momo around, and came to the conclusion that they should watch a movie to pass the time.

"I've got a '_The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_' DVD here," Inui stated, exhibiting the DVD.

"It doesn't seem right to watch that type of movie now," Kawamura stammered. It seemed somehow ironic in their situation.

"Well, let's watch something even children can watch then," Inui shrugged, stashing his DVD away in disappointment. He pulled out another movie that said '_The Prince of Tennis Musical_' on it. The others were all curious about what it would be like, and gathered around the TV with Doritos to watch it.

The show started with wild applause from the audience. As the applause died away, a guy dressed as Tezuka Kunimitsu appeared in the spotlight on the middle of the stage. He looked solemnly at the racket in his hand, and softly began to sing.

"Do your best, do your best…"

Everyone stared at the television with their mouths open. Finally, Ryoma raised his hand. "Um, Inui-senpai, can we watch something else?"

"Why?" Inui asked in surprise. "Don't you like Shirota Yu's(1) voice? Personally I think it's sexy. And he's good looking, though maybe a little insane of course-"

"This isn't about Shirota Yu. It's just that… he's playing Tezuka and… Tezuka is already… well, you know." Oishi stuttered in response.

"Fine," Inui sighed and took the DVD out. "I do think Araki Hirofumi(2) makes a very beautiful Inui…"

"We don't want to know that," everyone said, and forced Inui to play _Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith_ because there was neither excessive bloodshed nor any Tezukas in it. It didn't look like many of them were actually paying attention to the movie though.

Inui sat frowning over his notebook, carefully scribbling random ideas and deductions on the pages.

_Data cannot lie. I will find the murderer with my data. Whoever you are, I do not fear you, because Inui Sadaharu does not fear anyone. I will show you that messing around with Inui Sadaharu is not a smart move._

_I will show you._

Ryoma was dozing on the sofa. He knew that sleeping wasn't safe, but he still fell asleep because he really did have a tiring day.

He dreamed that even though everyone thought that Inui would be the one to die the next day, he didn't. Inui was perfectly well the next day.

The one who died in his dream was Mizuki Hajime. Because the little monkey takes a test on the fourth day, to match, Mizuki was holding a 2B pencil as well as an answer sheet. On the answer sheet was a dying message.

They thought that the dying message would show them the murderer's identity, but instead of a name or a clear indication, his dying message was "Thinking of you, missing you, loving you." It was written in purple.

Ryoma woke up thinking that he had never felt this distraught in his life.

Oishi was thinking of the Tezuka on the DVD they had just watched. Well, that guy wasn't actually Tezuka, but close enough. He had the same I-love-tennis-and-I-am-so-going-to-succeed-in-the-future-and-I-believe-in-my-teammates look on his face.

Without Tezuka, the tennis team was no longer a team.

Eiji was drawing a pack of cards, playing a game with rules he made up on the spot. He decided that he would have bad luck the next day if he drew a spade, good luck if he drew a heart, neither good nor bad luck if he drew a club, and that he would meet his true love if he drew a diamond. He wasn't really that superstitious, but he would believe anything in such a situation.

Hoping with all his might that it was a heart, he took a breath and pulled a card out of the pack. Truly believing that the card would determine his future, he mustered up all his courage and flipped the card over.

It was a Joker.

Kawamura, meanwhile, sat leaning on the living room table, playing with his racket.

Wait, he couldn't have. He would have burned the house down.

Kawamura, meanwhile, sat leaning on the living room table, playing with Karupin. Every time he scratched Karupin's chin, the cat made satisfied gurgling sounds. Kawamura liked this, so he proceeded to scratch Karupin's chin for hours without stopping.

"Karupin, you are the most adorable thing," he whispered with a pained smile. "You are the only one who truly understands me now, aren't you, Karupin?"

"Mrowr," Karupin said.

"Karupin, I don't know what to do…"

As for Fuji, if we knew what he was thinking, then he wouldn't be the almighty Fuji anymore. Therefore we can only be sure of one thing: he was pondering why he woke up _above_ a cupboard with Kawamura in the morning.

"Why a _cupboard_?" He murmured under his breath.

And that concludes another peaceful night on the island.

* * *

TBC. Reviews are very welcome. Thanks for reading!:D

(1)Shirota Yu: The guy who plays Tezuka in the second cast of Tenimyu. I am so in love with his voice. Look for videos of him if you are interested in seeing Tezuka do stupid things, because he's nuts. That was a compliment.

(2)Araki Hirofumi: The guy who plays Inui in the second cast of Tenimyu. Seriously, he has the loveliest eyes. And he is such a beautiful guy that I as a female have to hang my head in shame.

To shourin: Thanks for the review! There is a reason that the counting is off. The PoT characters here didn' t kill anyone though, the murderer(s) have another motive:D The original novel is really good. The ending is totally unexpected, and I don't think it's too scary. Coming from me that's saying a lot because I am scared of almost everything, so you don't have to worry about it being scary. xD

To Elyon: Thanks for the review! I can't tell you if your theory is correct though, because that will be a spoiler. :D I'm really glad you liked it! (shyly)


	17. Chapter 17

-Thursday-

Thursday morning came far too quickly, and all the remaining regulars were sitting around the table having a very cold breakfast. Even though they kept their guards up and didn't completely trust each other, it still seemed safer to stay with a large group of people instead of hiding by themselves.

The last night passed in a relatively peaceful manner. Apparently, not sleeping had its virtues. Nothing special or extraordinarily dangerous happened, except that Archimedes the Second had somehow managed to find his way onto the roof of the house, and was squawking up there like he was mad (maybe he was, you never know about chickens). The regulars would have left him there, but the racket he was making finally got unbearable and, moving as a team, the regulars spent half an hour running around on the roof trying to catch him. When they finally caught the struggling chicken, they found that he had a feather pen in its beak and refused to let go of it. According to Fuji, the feather pen was Archimedes the Second's favorite toy (Tezuka had figured that if people teased their cats with feathers, he could do the same with chickens). All the regulars were immensely touched by this chicken's loyalty towards its master, until Oishi wondered out loud how the feather pen ever got on the roof in the first place. Everyone considered this and started feeling vaguely uncomfortable, even though they didn't show the discomfort openly. After all, this was really a tiny incident compared with the other happenings in the recent days. Besides, it didn't kill anyone.

Therefore, there were no new corpses for the regulars to find in the morning. Even Inui, who stated the day before that he was very likely the next victim, was alive and well, and sat muttering to himself with a pencil posed above his notebook pages.

"Besides the Archimedes the Second incident, nothing had happened the previous night, which means that it's even more likely that the murderer is among us," he announced.

"How come?"

"If it was someone from outside, he wouldn't have known that we were planning to stay awake for the whole night and that it would be risky to try anything. Only one of us could have predicted our actions so well."

Fuji joined in with an innocent smile, "Yes, and from the way Tezuka was killed, it seemed more possible that it is an insider, doesn't it?"

"That's right. Even though I don't like to admit it, there is a 80 percent chance that the murderer is among us," Inui declared.

The others didn't really look very surprised. Perhaps they had already believed that it was probably an insider for some time. It was just that they were waiting for someone to say the words out loud. In fact, it seemed that everyone already had their own theory of who was the trustworthiest and stuck around the people they thought were innocent. For example, just about everyone thought it would be safe to hang around with nice-guy Kawamura, the Golden Pair usually stuck together, and Ryoma was always detached, unable to bring himself to trust any of his senpai.

Even weird Inui didn't like this kind of atmosphere, but he could do nothing about it. Besides, as he said so himself, he was the most likely victim for the day, so he might as well try to make it through the day alive before thinking about less important things like the atmosphere.

After breakfast they didn't know how to pass the time, because they were sick of all the group games that they had been playing in the last few days. Even Eiji, who received inexhaustible delight from relaxing contests, realized that it was impossible to enjoy anything of the sorts in such a situation.

Finally they decided to go out and check the island one more time, mostly because they didn't really like the concept of staying in a house with three corpses, even if the corpses had been their friends. It had ceased to rain, and in the cheerful sunlight the six regulars, along with a chicken and a cat, picnicked outside, eating sandwiches for lunch. However, it started raining cats and dogs all in a sudden. Even though they had umbrellas, most of them (the umbrellas, not the people) suffered severe damage from the strong gust, as some of them even landed in the ocean. After trying in vain to hide under the useless umbrellas, they finally decided to simply give up using umbrellas at all and ran back to the house instead. It was actually great fun, but none of them felt that it was acceptable to have great fun, so they quickly suppressed their 'oh, that was fun' thoughts and went on looking solemn.

"This looks bad." After they reached the house, panting, Fuji leaned on one of the windowpanes, watching the heavy rainfall. "If it keeps pouring this way, our boat might not be able to come pick us up on Sunday."

"Yeah, I had thought it would be sunny today. Last night when we were capturing Archimedes the Second, it was barely raining at all," Kawamura sighed. While Fuji watched the rain, Kawamura watched Fuji. Fuji's slender frame seemed stunningly beautiful to him.

"You know," Oishi said, trying to brighten the atmosphere, "if it's like what Inui said, one body a day, there will still be two or three of us alive on Sunday when the boat comes, won't there?"

"I don't think that will happen," Inui objected calmly.

Eiji exclaimed, "Why?"

"Firstly, if there are three or two people left, the murderer's identity will be pretty obvious, and that will be too dangerous for the murderer. It will be much safer to just kill everybody. Secondly, after 'the seventh day of the week' comes 'the eighth, ninth, and tenth days of the week'. There are only seven days in a week, so how can there be the eighth, ninth and tenth days? I assume the murderer will just ignore the day rules after the sixth or seventh day and kill according to his own liking."

They all decided that Inui had a point. Many of them wondered whether Inui could be the murderer, because he seemed to consider the whole thing in a very logical way and provide many possible theories. However, there was also the fact that if Inui was the murderer, he shouldn't have made it seem so blatantly obvious.

As if some unknown deity wanted to add to the spooky atmosphere, the rain became heavier and the wind even stronger than it had been. The water came down in torrents, making it difficult to see anything outside the house. The six regulars decided to split up to change out of their wet clothes and take turns taking hot water baths. After all, catching a cold under such circumstances wasn't a good thing. In fact, catching a cold anytime wasn't a good thing.

When dinnertime arrived, Fuji, Kawamura and Eiji watched as Oishi opened a few tins and scooped out the contents onto dishes, so they could make sure that no food poisoning would occur. And then, they shouted for the others to come to dinner. Not that there were many others, as it were.

Ryoma peeked cautiously out of his room. He was afraid –and with a good reason- of his senpai, so he ran and hid in his room right after taking a bath instead of sitting around in the living room doing nothing, like most of the others.

Oishi beckoned Ryoma over in a friendly fashion. He didn't like to scare his kouhai in any way, and he was heartbroken that Ryoma didn't seem to trust any of them very much. Ryoma walked reluctantly over to the dining table, looked up at his senpai-tachi and wondered out loud, "Where's Inui-senpai?"

The already tense and nervous teenagers looked at each other. Inui did say he was the most likely victim for the day, and obviously he must have heard the others shouting about dinner. It had been four people yelling, after all.

"Damn, we shouldn't have let him stay in his room to change by himself," Oishi cried, throwing down his chopsticks and darted towards Inui's room, the others following suit with various weapons like bread knives and bananas in their hands. They hadn't thought it was very polite to stay in each other's rooms to watch each other change, so they had discreetly done all the changing and bathing separately, but now they wished that they hadn't. How important was privacy compared to someone's life?

To their surprise, Inui's room was empty. Oishi, worrying that there might be a bomb or some kind of trap, surveyed the room closely before stepping in. The others followed and looked around.

"He couldn't be hiding –or hidden- in here," Kawamura gritted his teeth, noting how small the room was. "Where else can he be?"

Fuji suggested from aside, "If it has to do with a test, won't the library be most likely place?"

Fuji was always right. As they pushed open the heavy wooden door of the little library, which was right opposite Inui's room, they found Inui. They all saw him at the same time, except Ryoma, whose view was unfortunately blocked by his tall senpai-tachi.

Forcing his way through the small crowd, Ryoma finally saw his Inui-senpai. He was sprawled all over the large desk with a twisted face, and a black-covered notebook, a GRE study preparation book and a glass of Inui juice at his side. He was holding loosely a 2B pencil and an answer sheet in his hand.

Ryoma fainted when he saw the 2B pencil and the answer sheet.

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very appreciated:)

To Elyon: Thanks for the review:D Yes, I killed someone this time. Sorry it took so long xD


	18. Chapter 18

"Echizen, are you all right?" Oishi cried out in alarm, seeing the smaller boy's thin body swaying, ready to fall. He caught Ryoma in time and realized that he had fainted. Oishi's kind heart immediately filled with pity. Poor boy, he was only twelve –well, being fourteen didn't make it any better, come to think of it.

"Inui's–dead?" Eiji whispered, cowering behind the others. Oishi passed Ryoma's small body over to Eiji and took a few bold, yet shaking steps up to Inui's side.

"Looks like poisoning, though I can't be sure-" Oishi murmured, almost unable to bring himself to look at Inui's face. His twisted expression was heartbreaking. Inui had always been pretty weird, but he had also been the reliable, sane one who tried to find the murderer to protect everybody else.

For a murderer, leaving the smart, inquisitive one alive was suicide. Therefore, Inui could not live any longer. And thus, Inui was eliminated. Oishi bit his lip, trying to calm himself down, but he was never a calm person. He felt like screaming 'Inui, please don't go', not because he loved Inui or anything (this _could_ be a nice yaoi pairing) but because without dependable Inui, they were all in huge trouble.

"It could be that his Inui juice was poisoned," Kawamura suggested tremblingly, bravely stepping forward to join Oishi. They flipped through the pages of Inui's notebook. It was full of Inui's observations and musings, containing strange grids and confusing little doodles.

On the last page was a sentence, which might be Inui's last.

"_Tezuka and the others must be pretty bored in hell. No worries, the possibility of me joining them today is 100. The rest is up to you guys._"

They didn't know whether they should laugh or cry at the sentence.

"If we look through this notebook really carefully, we may find the murderer," Fuji commented, taking the notebook in his hands and studying it.

"I wanna see too," Eiji exclaimed, scanning the pages. "Wow, he's got a grid of the possibility of each person being the murderer!"

"Yeah," Kawamura gaped at the page with data about himself, looking flabbergasted.

"_Kawamura Takashi, male. VERY DANGEROUS in burning mode. NOT DANGEROUS AT ALL when not in burning mode._"

Kawamura murmured sadly, "So I'm not dangerous at all?" It was a good thing under the circumstances, of course, but all men like to be considered dangerous deep inside their hearts. It's inherent at birth. Kawamura was suffering from ego damage because of being considered not dangerous at all.

On the next page was the data of Kawamura's life.

"_199x Born in Tokyo._

_199x Championship in sushi tournament._

_199x Burned down his school._"

Kawamura stared in surprise. "Did I?"

It was not the only piece of data that should be reconsidered, its accuracy questionable. The other piece was this.

"_200x Fell hopelessly in love with Akutsu Jin._"

Kawamura stared in surprise again. "Did I?"

"He might have made a lot of these things up," Fuji shrugged with a smile. "Look, in the data about me, Inui stated that I spend every day thinking about you, Taka-san."

Kawamura turned green.

Oishi said decidedly, "Therefore, we can't believe all the data in this notebook. Some of the details can be made up or even part of Inui's fantasy. Look, he even recorded here that Echizen had a dream about Mizuki! How could he have known that? That's definitely made up."

"Ochibi, have you had a dream about Mizuki before?" Eiji asked Ryoma, whose eyelids were slowly fluttering awake.

"_How did you know that?_" Ryoma shrieked and fainted again.

"I guess Inui didn't make it up," Fuji grinned. "Well, even though we can't be sure what was made up and what wasn't, we should still check out this notebook. Inui had a list of questions worth pondering."

Eiji asked curiously, "What questions are there?"

"For example, 'how did the murderer take away the monkeys on the high shelves?' 'how the heck did Tezuka die?' and 'are Fuji and Kawamura really in love?'" Fuji recited.

Kawamura turned visibly red and muttered something incoherent.

"Well," Oishi put in, attempting to put a stop to the embarrassing and pointless topic, "I think we should all go to bed after we have dinner. After all, we hadn't slept at all last night, and that can't be good for us. Besides, now we know that not all murders happen at night, we might as well lock our doors and get some rest so we can be more alert for tomorrow. As long as we don't leave our rooms no matter what happens, we ought to survive the night."

"Yeah," Kawamura nodded. "Who wants to keep the notebook?"

"To prevent the murderer from making changes to any words in the notebook, we can't let anyone that might be the murderer keep it," Fuji pointed out.

"But we can all be the murderer. No one's completely clear," Kawamura looked troubled.

"Mmm. Since we can't guarantee it will be safe any way, we might as well put it in the fridge," Fuji concluded.

After four days of craziness everyone had become a little woozy. This was proved by the fact that everyone agreed and thought the fridge a good idea.

They had a very quiet dinner –just about as quiet as most of the previous dinners they had had, put Inui's notebook into the fridge and got ready to go to bed.

Eiji queried hopefully, "Are we sleeping together tonight?"

"Sorry, that's impossible, Eiji," Fuji said softly, his blue eyes stern. "It ought to be pretty clear to you by now. No outsider can know that Inui drinks a different type of Inui juice for every day of the week. The poison was apparently put in the Inui juice for Thursday only, so we can conclude that it's not an outsider. I'm not sleeping in the same room with someone who can be a killer, Eiji."

"I… I can't believe-" Eiji looked tearfully at Fuji with desperate eyes. "I don't care, it must be someone from outside, how can one of us ever-"

"Do not believe anyone, Eiji," Fuji stopped Eiji in the middle of his wild assertion. "If you keep on trusting the ones around you, you will be the one to suffer."

The four senpai placed Ryoma and Inui on their respective beds and checked the house all over again before they were ready to go to bed.

"Be careful, everyone," Oishi gently said.

"Yeah, take care, guys. Good night."

"Good night."

"Good night."

As the four doors opened at the same time and the four regulars stepped into their own rooms, they all silently vowed that they must not let Inui and his data down.

They would find the murderer.

* * *

To be continued. Thanks for reading!:) Reviews are very welcome.


	19. Chapter 19

-Friday-

For the whole night, the rain continued to fall. None of the regulars, alone in their separate rooms, slept well. After tossing and turning in bed for hours, Ryoma finally fell into an uneasy slumber, in which he dream not of Mizuki but instead his loyal followers, the freshmen trio, bawling that they were pregnant and wanted to hug Akutsu-senpai.

Ryoma felt somehow sad because of this. If he didn't have many days to live, he didn't really like the concept of spending his last hours dreaming about his fellow freshmen going crazy. And Akutsu-senpai? Is he even huggable?

Heaving a deep sigh in his bed, he thought of Inui's rhyme.

'_On the fifth day of the week, the little monkey will dance for you._'

Ryoma couldn't dance, so he didn't think that he would very likely be the next victim. However, when he reconsidered, he realized that the others who were left couldn't dance either. Or at least, he hadn't seen any of them dance before, so he assumed that they couldn't.

_Who will it be tomorrow?_

_--_

It was still raining in the morning. As everyone gathered at the dining table to have breakfast (since no one was willing to be the first to come out of his room, they had to yell 'one, two, three, go' before all opening the door at the same time), Eiji greeted Ryoma with a bright grin. "Hey, ochibi, are you okay? We were a bit worried yesterday when you fainted."

"Mada mada dane," Ryoma muttered, pulling the rim of his cap down.

"You're back to normal, aren't you? I'm glad. And I'm glad that everyone has made it through the night!" Eiji exclaimed, glomping Ryoma cheerfully. He seemed to be in extraordinarily high spirits this morning.

Ryoma rolled his eyes in reply. He was definitely not feeling normal. How could anyone feel normal under such circumstances? And he knew that behind the sunny smile of his, his senpai was probably as scared as he was. That smile had to be a fake.

Ryoma watched his other senpai chatting absent-mindedly around the dinner table, at the same time keeping an eye on Oishi, who was making egg-fried rice. All the others were also alertly noting Oishi's every move as they talked. They couldn't risk anything.

Oishi was making fried rice with eggs because the others were going to discuss the contents of Inui's notebook, and that would take a long time. He even took out a few Cokes they had found in the fridge. Due to Inui's drink-poisoning incident the previous day, none of them felt it very safe to drink Cokes, but they still liked drinking Cokes. After seeing that all the cans were unopened, they decided that it should be safe enough and chose a can.

"So, let's start from Inui's list of questions worth thinking about," Fuji announced, taking out the notebook from the fridge when they were finally all settled down around the table.

"Sure, read it for us, senpai," Ryoma suggested, because everyone was busy eating and couldn't have crowded around the tiny notebook at the same time.

Fuji obligingly read aloud from the notebook. "Okay. First question: _Were the strange clothes on Kaidoh put on by the murderer? (That way he would have seen Kaidoh naked! Unforgivable!) _"

Ryoma almost choked on his Coke. "That's not really that important a question, is it?" He wished he had Ponta instead of Coke, but since there weren't any Pontas around he figured that Coke would have to do.

"But you see, Echizen, this question could be important to Inui. Well, let's move on to the second question then-"

Before Fuji could read out the second question to the others, he was interrupted by a startled yelp from Eiji.

"What?" Fuji asked, lifting his eyes from the notebook.

"I saw a… Wait! Hey, wait-" Eiji leapt up and darted towards the disco room, completely ignoring the fact that he was still holding his chopsticks in one hand and Coke in the other. The door to the disco room had always stayed open even though no one wanted to dance, and the place Eiji was sitting enabled on him to get a better view of the room than the others did. He must have noticed something in there with his keen eyesight.

Ryoma frowned, "Weird. That room is always empty. How can anything out of the ordinary be in there?"

"Yeah, we're all here. Even the cat and the chicken-" Oishi began, but Fuji cut in, "Didn't Inui say that the fifth day has something to do with dancing in the rhyme?"

"Oh no, the disco room-" Oishi cried out, suddenly realizing that the disco room was a dangerous place to be upon hearing Fuji's words. He jumped up and ran after Eiji, his rice bowl falling to the floor and shattering into pieces. Karupin let out a soft meow of complaint.

The others did the same, putting down their food and running towards the disco room. There were thousands of possibilities as to what could be waiting for them in there. The murderer could have set up a trap and used some device to attract the curious, sharp-eyed Eiji, and kill him. But before they could stop him, Eiji had already stepped into the room. He turned to face the others, looking rather regretful.

"Too late. It got away."

The others stared at him and then quickly scanned the room. The disco room had no furniture inside. Mirrors lined the wall. The floor was wooden, smooth and shiny. It was an ideal place to dance in.

"What happened? Don't scare us like this, okay?" Oishi panted, leaning against the wall, relieved that Eiji was still in one piece.

"I saw two yellow eyes in this room when we were back at the table," Eiji explained. "I think it was an animal. Too bad it got away."

"But how can there be any animal in the house besides Karupin and buchou's chicken? _And _they were both outside," Ryoma pointed out.

"Can a squirrel have gotten in here?" Kawamura suggested, looking around the room.

"It couldn't have been a squirrel," Eiji shook his head. "It was larger."

"Senpai, maybe it was your imagination," Ryoma shrugged, feeling rather annoyed.

"No way, I really saw it! It was about as big as your Karupin, ochibi," Eiji stated.

"Never mind. I don't care what it was as long as you're all right," Oishi sighed, his heart hammering in his chest.

"Maybe this place ishaunted," Fuji smiled wickedly. "Who knows?"

"Maybe it is," Eiji agreed happily, taking a large gulp from his Coke. "Have you seen any yellow eyes too?"

"I hadn't seen any yellow eyes in this house before, sorry." Fuji's smile widened. "But I _had_ seen-"

Fuji had wanted to make up a ghost story then and there on the spot to scare the others because he thought it would be fun, but he stopped in mid-sentence, eyes snapping open. Everyone else halted in whatever they were doing, staring wide-eyed at Eiji, who had just swallowed a mouthful of his Coke. Even Eiji was staring at his own reflection in the mirrors on the wall.

Four of their teammates were already dead, but none of them had actually died right in front of everyone's eyes. This time, it was different. It was Friday, they were all in the disco room, and they all saw it.

How they wished they didn't have to see this.

The regulars watched in a daze as Eiji's can of Coke fell to the wooden floor, its brown liquid content spilling all over the place.

Eiji, whose big cat eyes had been shining with his usual enthusiasm a second ago, did not look lively anymore. He was in obvious pain, shaking and convulsing, gasping desperately for air but not being be able to get any. Wide-eyed, he stared in shock at his own reflection in the mirrors that lined the disco room walls, and then down at the coke can. Both Ryoma and Kawamura were stunned and unable to move, but the genius Fuji reacted immediately.

"Somebody go get some water, now!"

Hearing Fuji's command, Kawamura quickly snapped out of his paralysis and ran out of the room to look for water, even though deep down inside he knew that water probably would not be of much help. He believed that Fuji knew that too, but he wanted –needed- to do something instead of just standing there gaping.

Oishi, meanwhile, was shouting Eiji's name, supporting his doubles partner's sagging body. Eiji was coughing madly, every choking gasp breaking Oishi's heart over and over again. Returning with a glass of water, Kawamura handed it to Fuji, who took it but did nothing. Kawamura had guessed right, Fuji did not believe that water could do Eiji any good, and was just asking for it because he wanted to do something -anything except just watching.

None of them really had any idea about what to do in such a situation and Inui, their walking encyclopedia, was not there. They did not want to give up, but there didn't seem to be any other choice, so they watched, staring in absolute silence as their redheaded friend struggled for life in Oishi's arms, wishing that it would just be over soon. Finally the anguished coughing subsided, and the spasms slowly stopped. All strength had left Eiji, but his hand still clutched at Oishi's sleeve tightly, as if it was some kind of lifeline. In the end, he could not hold on, as bloodshot eyes gazed into Oishi's face, as if wanting to say something but couldn't. All of his teammates had expected to hear something heartbreaking and poignant from his gasping mouth--something along the lines of "I've always loved you, Oishi" like in a soap opera or "You must find the murderer" from a dying detective. But Eiji only managed a tiny smile, as if he was telling the others not to worry about him, and collapsed. There was no question that he was dead.

The room became silent.

Fuji, who had looked relatively calm in the last few days, suddenly abandoned all calmness and dignity, grabbing Oishi in a fit of passionate fury. Shaking him, he yelled, "What the heck did you do to Eiji? What did you put in his drink? You-"

"I didn't do anything to him. You've all seen, I didn't have any time to tamper with the Cokes, and you all chose your own can," Oishi, usually as nice-tempered as one could ever be, lost himself as well and started shouting back. "Why would I ever do anything to _Eiji_?"

Oishi had always told himself that being the vice-captain on the team, he must stay calm to lead the others, no matter how difficult it was. He had known that he should not lead the others into the depths of despair along with him, so he had always tried not to cry no matter what had happened, at least not in front of the others. But now tears of anger were running down his face, and he didn't bother to cover the fact that he was crying.

Finding a corpse was very different from watching a person die right before their eyes. Kawamura's legs gave away and he knelt down on the floor. Ryoma was by him, eyes fixed on his own can of Coke, unable to drink anymore.

"I -sorry." Fuji murmured, letting go of Oishi. He couldn't understand how he, the always composed, always smiling resident genius of Seigaku, could have lost all his cool and almost tried to fight somebody. It was even more out of character than Tezuka Kunimitsu running around the school naked and exhibiting a giraffe tattoo on his butt.

Oishi did not even have strength to say "it'll be right."

* * *

TBC

I had really great trouble writing this part in the Chinese version, but when translating I had no problem whatsoever with my conscience. It can mean that I'm getting more sadistic with time. I hope it's not getting too obvious though...

Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome:D

To Elyon: Thanks for the review! Your review made my day too:) I killed someone again this time. I felt so ashamed somehow when I was writing it...

To Yukari: Yeah, I think no-one-die chapters are kind of boring too:D It's all right, English isn't my first language either (in fact, I've never seen that word before and had to look it up.) Thanks for the suggestion, I really have been ignoring the monkey figures for quite a while now...

To loove it!!: Thanks for the review!:D Don't worry about the tennis club not existing anymore, if they all get killed they can always play tennis together in hell.


	20. Chapter 20

When Tezuka died, the regulars could only stare in stupor until the silence was broken by Tezuka's chicken. The situation was the same now -the remaining regulars could do nothing but gape at Eiji's dead body until an animal broke the silence. It was not the chicken this time, but Ryoma's Karupin.

"Mrowr," Karupin remarked, gliding into the room with his usual feline grace, rubbing his furry head lovingly on Ryoma's leg, totally oblivious to the corpse beside him. Nothing mattered much to him unless it's moving or edible.

_Kikumaru-senpai is just like a cat too,_ Ryoma found himself thinking. _Err, was._

"So, um-" With the awkward silence broken, Ryoma attempted at conversation. "So what do you guys think Kikumaru-senpai saw? _I_ didn't see any eyes." He held Karupin in his lap, stroking the cat's fur absent-mindedly. He thought that if there had really been some weird animal in the room like Eiji had said, Karupin probably would have had come to investigate before Eiji had. It was indeed strange.

"The window's not open," Fuji observed. "Nothing could have made its way in here."

"So… so it really was a ghost?" Kawamura shuddered at the thought. He was somehow glad that Kaidoh was already gone. The timid kouhai probably wouldn't have liked the prospect of being in a haunted house.

"I don't believe that it was a ghost," Fuji, even though usually the ghost-story lover of the team, asserted. "To make the death for today fit the rhyme, I think it's more likely that the murderer set up some kind of trap to lure Eiji into this disco room. It's just that I have no idea what trap it is. There is no evidence of any gimmicks in this room. The whole place is bare."

"What I really don't get is that Eiji was obviously poisoned from his drink," Kawamura pondered, "yet both Echizen and I had also already drunk some. Why was he the only one who-"

"I guess the poison must be in Eiji's can only, and not ours." Fuji studied the can of Coke in his own hand. "Still, we all saw that the Cokes were not opened beforehand, and we each chose a can to our own liking. It was impossible to predict which person would be poisoned…"

Kawamura frowned, following Fuji's chain of thoughts. "Then how could the murderer make sure that he didn't get the poisoned can himself?"

"I hate to say this," Fuji said thoughtfully, "but the most likely solution is that Eiji poisoned himself _after_ the can was opened. Yet… why on earth would Eiji ever want to poison himself?"

Kawamura nodded. "Yeah, that's not reasonable. Of all of us, Eiji is the least likely to commit suicide. He couldn't have poisoned himself. Weird, how could this have happened?"

No one had an answer to that.

As they all drifted back into the same awkward silence, Fuji stood up suddenly as if he just remembered something important and went out of the room. The others were barely able to stand up, but followed his movements with their eyes.

"Guys, I just discovered something," Fuji came back into the doorway, extraordinarily solemn. "I counted the little monkey figures when we were having breakfast back there, and there were six left. Now there are only five."

"None of us have left the room since Eiji died, so this means that the murderer really _is_ an outsider!" Kawamura, the kind-hearted humanitarian, lightened up immediately at the possibility of proving his friends' innocence.

"No, it can't be someone from outside," Fuji shook his head. "I locked the front door as well as every window that is big enough for anyone to climb in before we went to bed the previous day. No one could have gotten in."

"But if it wasn't one of us who took away the little monkey figure nor anyone from outside, then it could only be a poltergeist or something," Kawamura pointed out.

Fuji considered this. "Can't be a poltergeist. No, I don't believe in poltergeists. Hmm… Taka-san, do you think that it's possible that one of our teammates who are 'dead' are only pretending to be dead?"

"Huh?" Kawamura stared at Fuji, mouth open. He was the only person who was answering all of Fuji's questions and maintaining the flow of the conversation, because neither Ryoma nor Oishi seemed to be in talking mood, and Karupin could not speak Japanese. "But it's impossible that they were just pretending! I mean, hadn't Inui checked all the bodies?"

"Not his own," Fuji's eyes opened slightly, emitting a somewhat dangerous glow. "Maybe Inui skillfully faked his own death."

"Um… then we'd better check him out to make sure," Kawamura murmured, a little unwillingly. It was understandable. Who in the world enjoys checking out his teammate's corpse?

Seeing that Ryoma and Oishi still didn't feel like moving around, Fuji and Kawamura left them sitting on the floor and headed towards Inui's room together.

Inui was right there on the bed. Neither Fuji nor Kawamura was a doctor nor had any possibility of becoming one, but as far as they could see Inui just couldn't be alive. He looked dead. So dead.

"I don't understand," Kawamura leaned forward to look for a pulse. He did not find one.

"Neither do I," Fuji admitted. "Anyway, the four of us should just stay together as much as possible. Let's not try anything rash."

Kawamura agreed. It was exactly what he thought himself. Even if there could very well be ruthless killers among them, he still preferred having some company over being alone. Kawamura was, even though sometimes a little shy, a people person. Deep inside he somehow still naively believed that as long as there were people around him, everything would be all right. And besides, if he had to die anyway, he might as well spend the rest of his short life looking at the beautiful Fuji.

Gently closing the door of Inui's room, Fuji and Kawamura returned to the disco room, where poor Eiji was still sprawled on the floor and the remaining two of their party were dismally sitting. Both looked up at them with blank, slightly red eyes.

"So what did you find out?" Ryoma asked, smoothing the long, sleek fur of his cat. Even though he did not say a thing when Fuji and Kawamura were musing over all sorts of possibilities, he had listened to the conversation with his full attention. There wasn't much else to do anyway.

"We didn't find out anything," Fuji smiled wanly at Ryoma, " and Inui _is_ dead."

Ryoma felt like his world was falling to pieces. Even the know-it-all Fuji-senpai admitted defeat, said he 'didn't know' and seemed like he meant it. That was something new that had never happened in Ryoma's normal world.

Fuji turned to Oishi, who was still in a daze. "Are you okay?"

Oishi lifted his head to look at Fuji. "Did you guys find out who did it?" After all, among all the people who were left, the genius Fuji certainly had the most reliable brain.

"No. Sorry."

The two looked at each other. Their eyes met. Fuji's eyes were no longer a crystal clear blue, but turbulent and clouded like the sky outside—nevertheless, he managed to calm Oishi's teary, dark green eyes.

"Fuji, if you find the murderer, tell him that wherever Dou-liu is, I'm willing to go there tomorrow."

Outside, the rain was still falling.

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very appreciated:D

To loove it!!: I can't tell you how xD That will be a spoiler... Thanks for the review! :D

To Elyon: It's all right xD Thanks for the review! Please visit here when you return OwO


	21. Chapter 21

No one dared to try the breakfast that was still sitting forlornly on the dining table because of Eiji's horrible death. They decided to skip breakfast and move on directly to lunch instead. Oishi, who had prepared all the meals in the past few days, did not have the strength to go into the kitchen. Ryoma claimed that he couldn't cook and that eating anything made by Fuji was completely out of the question, so Kawamura took over the duty of making lunch. Even though Kawamura started burning whenever he touched anything long and thin or resembled his tennis racket, it was all right as long as he steered clear of the knives and eggbeaters. As the future chef of the Kawamura sushi shop, he was of course skilled in making sushi, so he made plenty of that for everyone.

None of them really had any appetite at all, but Kawamura's sushi was indeed splendidly made, and they all enjoyed it despite themselves. Maybe part of it was because they didn't want to care about anything except food anymore. It was sort of like how busy students are preparing for important exams, so they can eat anything and find it delicious.

Kawamura and Fuji, the more lucid ones of the remaining four, decided that they should bring out Inui's notebook and resume discussing Inui's notes. However, when they tried to do so, they discovered that the notebook was nowhere to be found.

"How can it go missing? Have you checked the fridge?" Kawamura exclaimed in surprise.

"It's not in there. I've already checked all the possible places, even the inside of the microwave and under my armpits," Fuji replied.

Kawamura was very much baffled. "But everyone was together the entire time. How can anyone have a chance to take it?"

"True," Fuji unconsciously leaned closer to Kawamura. "But I don't believe that it is any supernatural force. There must be some kind of reasonable explanation."

Unable to find Inui's notebook anywhere, they finally could do nothing except sitting around the dining table in utter silence to idle away the time. Four was a perfect number for card games or almost any kind of entertainment, but no one tried to start one. Every remaining regular was too immersed in his own thoughts to do so, and besides, having fun at such a time was too indecent.

Oishi, who had not said much since Eiji passed away in his arms, could not feel his usual stomachache anymore. In its place was a strong heartache. He could hardly think straight, let alone say anything. He felt somewhat as if all his organs had exploded simultaneously.

He had said he would protect Eiji, whatever the cost. And he didn't.

The gentle, meek and obliging Kawamura was reflecting sadly over the fact that he could do nothing to help anyone in this situation except making some nice sushi. He was rather unhappy because of this, because he really wanted to do something, anything to make his friends feel better. He felt wretched and useless.

Kawamura wanted to go back home again. He wanted to make sushi with his father, to play tennis with his friends, to run laps with all the people he really liked, and to play doubles with Fuji.

He suddenly discovered that even in such a situation, he could think about nothing but Fuji.

Fuji stared down at the table, brow-knitted. The others seemed to rely entirely on his brain now, but even as a genius he couldn't explain how the notebook had managed to disappear.

Fuji always had the appearance of someone who could see ghosts, maybe even speak to them. Despite of this, he was actually a very realistic person, perhaps even more realistic than Inui. That was why he was always able to pinpoint the perfect solution for others' predicaments and note other people's weak points. As a pragmatic person, he did not believe that the supernatural had anything to do with the mysterious occurrences. He knew that there must be a logical explanation, and he was definitely going to find it.

Ryoma felt that he was going crazy and so was everybody else. In death, Kaidoh-senpai was dressed as if he was cosplaying. Momo-senpai was killed by his favorite thing in the world: food. The invincible Tezuka-buchou died, thus proving that he was not invincible. Even Fuji-senpai, who told scary stories whenever he got the chance, actually asserted that he did not believe in ghosts. That was even more unlikely than roosters laying eggs.

Speaking of roosters, there was in fact one rooster right on the spot. Ladies and gentlemen, here we have the POV of Archimedes the second.

_Where are you where are you my dear master I miss you so when are you going to come back to me? There's a strange person here that doesn't open his eyes at all and keeps looking at me like he wants to eat me and I'm so scared! Master please come back to protect me from that scary person. These people keep getting killed they can't survive without you and neither can I. I miss you I miss you come back to me I miss you so much. They say you are not coming back but I do not believe them you always always come back to me my dear master I know you will come back and you will hug me like you always did. Come back come back to me don't leave me here don't leave me don't leave me cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck_

_--_

Archimedes the Second did not live long after. Before the regulars finally got sick of the stupid silence and decided unanimously to go to bed, they discovered the chicken murdered in cold blood, his body brutally slit, on the floor in front of Tezuka's door.

To Archimedes the Second, death seemed roughly like flying. He felt that he was soaring through the dark skies towards an abnormally bright star, and he simply knew that Tezuka was somewhere up there on the star waiting for him. In his short chicken life he had never been happier. In fact, he would have died with a smile on his lips if he had had lips.

It was not that nice for the unfortunate regulars who found him though. The four of them had been heading towards their rooms together when they spotted the carcass. Oishi collapsed in shock right after seeing the bloody crime scene, and for some time, found it hard to get back up again. Kawamura, being the nice guy he was, found a broom and a mop and tried to clear the mess up. Ryoma was rendered speechless and ran sobbing into his room. Of course, he had not liked the noisy rooster very much, as he only had eyes for Karupin, but seeing anyone's pet killed in that manner triggered something in him. He slammed the door of his room without looking back once.

Fuji sat down beside Oishi, wanting to keep him company. He thought it remarkable that even when dying, the chicken still managed to do it in front of Tezuka's room, where he felt closest to his beloved master. Even during death the chicken gravitated towards Tezuka, unable to leave the Tezuka zone.

Fuji wondered whether they themselves could ever survive without the influence of Tezuka. Perhaps they would never get out of the Tezuka zone either.

He missed Tezuka. He realized that without Tezuka, the team would never make it. They would never make it to the nationals, and they would never make it out of here alive.

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are really welcome.

To ray-chan: Thanks for the review!:D Ghosts can make really wonderful murderers...

To Elyon: Your school sounds interesting xD Thanks for all the compliments, they make me so happy. (blushes)

To loove it!!: I agree, it's quite obvious :D Thanks for the review!

To Yukari: Thanks for the review:) My final exam is in a few weeks too:( (cries) Hopefully I'll be able to update then...


	22. Chapter 22

-Saturday-

The weekend had arrived. On the previous weekend, the regulars were happily packing their things, ready to have the time of their lives on the deserted island, making all sorts of crazy plans on how to spend the week. The week did not pass the way they had expected, and this weekend only four of the original nine were left.

Or was it really four?

--

"Should we just break the door down or something?" Fuji turned to ask Kawamura.

They were standing in front of Oishi's door. On the door was a large piece of red cardboard with the words "GONE TO DOULIU! XD" boldly sprayed in white. The huge letters laughed at the three pale teenagers, who seemed to be the only ones left alive on the island.

"Yeah, let's just break it down," Kawamura sighed to answer. The door to Oishi's door opened towards the inside, so they decided to break it with the most obvious way: by simply ramming their bodies into it with force. It was not as easy a task as it seemed in movies, Fuji reflected, as he continued throwing himself mechanically upon the wooden door. Being a very slender person, his efforts did not have much effect.

"Stand back. Let me do it," Kawamura suggested, biting his lip. Ryoma leaned against the hallway wall, quietly watching his senpai struggle with the door.

That morning, when the three of them woke up and decided to leave all their rooms together at the same time, go to the restroom in turn, grab something to eat to simply disappear back into their respective rooms again, they saw the red sign hanging there on Oishi's door. They yelled his name but got no answer. Kawamura went to check the number of the little wooden monkeys in the living room, and noticed that there was a trail of wet dirt beside the front door. He concluded that someone had been outside in the rain, and opened the front door to check. Right outside the door, he saw six funnels standing innocently in a circle.

After Kawamura called the other two over, they inspected the area and realized that the ground had been recently disturbed, possibly due to some digging the night before. Therefore, they found some shovels from the underground storage room and dug around. It wasn't that they were really looking forward to find Oishi's body, but it was only proper that if Oishi was killed he should be buried back at home in Japan. He deserved a decent burial with family present, instead of resting forever in a strange land with six funnels as monuments.

What surprised the forlorn threesome was that they did not find Oishi's body. After some frantic digging, all they discovered was an arm. It was a right arm, as a matter of fact.

"Aww," they all exclaimed in disgust and stared at the arm.

"It's Oishi's." Kawamura murmured, stooping down to check it closer. "See, here's the place he hurt himself a few days ago on the beach." He pointed at a long reddish streak on the arm.

"He hurt himself on the beach? I didn't know that." Fuji raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"When we were cooking together Monday evening, I saw that his arm was hurt and asked him about it," Kawamura hastily explained, "and he said he scraped himself on something sharp on the beach. He quickly hid the scar under his sleeve though, I guess it was because he didn't want people to see it and worry."

"Very thoughtful guy," Ryoma commented sarcastically. "It seems pretty deliberate to me. Couldn't Oishi-senpai have just cut off one arm to pretend that he was dead and hidden away somewhere to avoid suspicion?"

Fuji nodded. "Good thinking. I was thinking the same thing myself, but this-" he glanced at the arm and shuddered, "-he couldn't have done this himself. He would have to use a pretty large knife or saw, and since this is the right arm he would have to use his left –and that is a pretty awkward angle. I'm guessing that he was dismembered."

It was as if the temperature had suddenly dropped a few degrees. All three shivered simultaneously as images of Oishi's severed head and body parts danced around in their heads. Definitely not a happy image.

Ryoma took a deep breath, trying to look nonchalant but failing miserably, "I wonder where the rest of him is?"

"Maybe we should check his room," Kawamura slowly stood up, dusting his hands on his jeans.

That was why the threesome found themselves in front of Oishi's room, the bright red sign laughing at their faces. The door had yet to be broken down, but deep inside they knew that breaking it down probably would not help Oishi much now.

"Take this, Taka-san," Fuji suggested, forcing a tennis racket into Kawamura's hand. Kawamura took it sheepishly and immediately transformed.

"BURNING!" He shouted and shattered the door without any difficulty. Kawamura tumbled into the room with the fallen door, the racket slipping from his grip. He quickly became his normal self again and looked around the room, panting. Fuji slowly followed his friend into the room.

"Come on in, Echizen," Kawamura called to Ryoma, who stubbornly remained outside.

"I don't want to," Ryoma continued to lean against the wall, unwilling to move. He did not like the prospect of seeing a dead body or any separate body parts.

"It's all right," Fuji sighed, sitting down exhaustedly on Oishi's bed. "He's not here."

Ryoma wondered where the rest of Oishi's body parts could be hidden. He wondered whether his two remaining senpai had successfully "finished" all the others together, and it was now his turn. It certainly seemed a possibility.

He took a deep breath. If the two senpai were going to kill him together sooner or later, he might as well get it over with. He stepped gingerly into Oishi's room to join his senpai. Neither of them displayed any signs of wanting to murder Ryoma, though.

Even though Oishi had only stayed in the room for a few days, it already showed the inhabitant's personality. It was an extraordinarily neat and orderly room. The window was small. Beams of light slipped in through the curtains.

"Strange," Fuji observed, "the window is too small for anyone to pass through, and there's no way one can get through the door without a key. This is sort of like a locked room mystery. But why would the murderer want to make this a locked room mystery?"

"Yeah," Kawamura leaned over towards the window. "His window is about three times smaller than mine."

Ryoma also noted that the window in his own room was much larger than this one. He had no idea what the windows in the rooms of the other senpai were like, but he vaguely recollected that Oishi's was the smallest he had seen in the week. Ryoma came to the conclusion that even when choosing rooms, Oishi had chosen the one with the smallest window to leave the breezier rooms with better lighting for the others. It was just a tiny gesture, but it could be easily seen that Oishi was –had been- a very thoughtful person, always willing to put others before himself.

Ryoma stared down at the floor in front of him, absent-mindedly pondering where the little drops of water had come from. It couldn't have been raining _inside_ the house, could it?

Not until Kawamura nervously asked him if he was okay did Ryoma realize that the drops were his own tears. He hated himself for crying so much. Where had the cool and composed Prince of Tennis gone? He asked himself, but got no answer.

"Echizen, everything will be all right. Don't cry-" Kawamura worriedly leaned over, trying to comfort his cute, sobbing kouhai.

"Let him cry," Fuji put in softly from aside. He was relatively calm. At least, he _looked_ relatively calm-

All in a sudden, Fuji stood up in a flash of anger. Banging on Oishi's desk with a fist, he yelled, "WHO THE HECK DID THIS?"

Neither Kawamura nor Ryoma had ever seen Fuji look like this. Both of them turned towards Fuji with their mouths hanging open. Ryoma forgot to cry altogether.

Even Fuji himself never thought he could be this angry in his life. He sat down again on the bed, tears coming down in torrents. Kawamura wanted to say something soothing, but could find no words comforting enough, and ended up with his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

"It's not me. I swear," Kawamura managed to whisper at last. Obviously, even if it really was him, answering with an "It's me. YAY!" would be crazy.

"Not me either," Ryoma sniffed, pulling out a tissue and handing it to Fuji.

"I sure do hope it isn't you guys," Fuji took it gratefully, quietly wiping his face, "you are all I have left now…"

The always strong, calm, smiling Fuji Syusuke had finally shown his weaker side to others.

"You are all I have left now."

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome.:)

To Elyon: Thanks for the review. I usually update on Fridays (in my country), so you can just check on Fridays xD Please don't lose your sanity, this is meant to be a happy (?) story...:D Your review made me so happy xD (shyly)

To shourin: Thanks for the review:D I'm glad you find it funny!

To loove it!!: Thanks for the review xD I guess they really are never going to make it to the nationals... (sigh)

To syusukeblue: Thanks for the reviews:) This is actually mystery, crime, horror, suspense, adventure, angst, friendship, hurt/comfort, parody and romance xD


	23. Chapter 23

The three remaining regulars sat in Oishi's room for some time, trying to calm themselves down. Finally Fuji managed a smile and suggested with feigned cheerfulness, "We can't just sit here doing nothing. Since it's raining outside and we can't go out, why don't we check the house one more time and look at each other's luggage for a bit?"

"We should have done this a long time ago," Ryoma muttered, pulling down his cap. "Mada mada dane."

Kawamura gulped visibly at the suggestion. He had always been dreading the possibility that someone would propose checking each other's luggage, not because he had anything embarrassing hidden in his stuff, but because the whole thing seemed so…distrusting. Call him naïve, but even in such a situation he wanted desperately to trust the others. His guts churned at the idea of going through others' things.

The three looked around the house and checked each other's stuff thoroughly, but found no strange sights or any of Oishi's body parts. In the end, at a loss about what to do next, they came to the conclusion —at least, Fuji came to the conclusion— that they might as well check everybody else's luggage as well.

"Here we are at Tezuka Kunimitsu's room," Fuji announced, flinging open Tezuka's door. "And here we have Tezuka's Hello Kitty duffel bag. I wonder what's inside? Let's check it out, people!"

"But Fuji, even if Tezuka's dead, it's not very nice to invade other people's privacy-" Kawamura, following Fuji into the room, protested feebly as he watched Fuji zip open the duffel bag. Kawamura went to Fuji's side and pulled out a stack of Yu-Gi-Oh battle cards from Tezuka's backpack, "-Wow, I didn't know that Tezuka had these."

Ryoma was about to point out to Kawamura that his words and actions were slightly contradictory, when he spotted another interesting item himself.

"Buchou has a Sponge Bob Square Pants stuffed inside his jacket pocket," Ryoma exclaimed, exhibiting the doll.

"I don't believe that," Kawamura stared in awe. "Someone else must have put it in there."

"Hey, look at this, guys," Fuji called to the other two gently. He was holding a photograph that he had found in Tezuka's wallet. Being Fuji it was only natural that he would go through other people's wallets.

Kawamura and Ryoma gathered around Fuji to look at the picture. It was a photo of the nine Seigaku regulars standing proudly on the school tennis court, their bright smiles radiant under the sun. Tezuka, who rarely smiled, had carefully kept this photo inside his wallet, where he could look at it often. The threesome gaped at the picture, feeling immensely touched.

They had never realized that they were that important to their captain.

The next room they came to was Oishi's. After they had a good laugh at Oishi's fashion sense, they were ready to head towards the next room. Before they did, however, Fuji softly called the others' attention again, displaying another photograph. He had found it in Oishi's wallet.

It was a picture the nine regulars took together in Kawamura's sushi shop. They were all eating sushi and looking very happy. The three of them found themselves smiling a little sadly as they looked at it.

They had never realized that they were that important to their vice-captain either.

They went through Kaidoh's room next, carefully ignoring the lump that was covered with a blanket on the bed. They were in no mood to see Kaidoh's corpse once more. Instead, they rummaged through his drawers, and found quite a lot of unexpected things. For example, there was a pink parasol, and seven big fat volumes of Harry Potter. They guessed that Kaidoh might have used these books for weight training purposes.

There was also a picture in Kaidoh's wallet. It was taken in front of the school. The nine regulars stood with the principal and their coach, the school flag and a large trophy in the principal's hands. The photograph was not as carefully kept as Tezuka's and Oishi's. It was wrinkled at the edges, with smudges of fingerprints over it. It seemed that the picture had been handled a lot, very possibly by its quiet, sentimental owner, who would look at the picture and smile, letting it brighten up his day.

The three silently mourned for Kaidoh and moved on to the next room, which happened to be Eiji's. Eiji's luggage consisted mostly of less serious items, like junk food, comic books and Game Boys. He even had a giant stuffed bear inside his yellow duffel bag. It was too big to fit inside, so Eiji seemed to have dismembered it and squeezed the parts into the bag.

"That's pretty macabre," Kawamura commented in shock.

"He probably thought that he could sew the bear back together again when he gets home," Fuji smiled. "Very simple kid, our Eiji."

"What's so simple about that? I call it insane," Ryoma muttered from aside.

They had a bit of trouble figuring out who's who on the photo in Eiji's wallet. For some weird reason Eiji had decided to decorate the picture with elaborate pictures of little stars, flowers and butterflies, making it impossible to see everyone clearly since the ribbons and stickers kept getting in the way. Eiji had also written "Best Friends" with a silver marker on the margin of the photo, and sprinkled multi-colored glitter all over it.

The three of them did not have any comments for this picture, because they knew that if they said anything, they would surely end up in tears, and they didn't want that. Therefore, they wordlessly headed on towards the next room, which was Inui's.

Inui's luggage was just as crazy as they had expected. Reflecting on the times they were forced to drink the infamous Inui juice, the threesome began to tremble simultaneously. They couldn't help wondering whether all the curious things they came across in Inui's room were ingredients of Inui juice. It was not a very happy prospect.

"Why… are there worms?" Kawamura queried, unable to take his eyes off the large box of live worms that turned up in Inui's book bag.

"Maybe he wanted to go fishing," Fuji posed. Even sadistic Fuji didn't feel very good about this.

Ryoma, meanwhile, was staring at the duffel bag on the floor in shock. "He's mad! This thing is full of scorpions."

"Um, maybe he used them for fishing," Fuji posed again.

"What's this finger doing here?" Kawamura gasped, holding up a finger he had uncovered in Inui's closet for everyone to see.

"Maybe he needed it for fishing," Fuji posed again uncertainly. He wondered who the finger had belonged to.

Ryoma, eager to leave this dangerous room as soon as possible, asked, "Fuji-senpai, are there any photos in Inui-senpai's wallet too?"

So there were. There were not only photos of players from Seigaku, but photos of people from other schools as well. Behind each photo was detailed data on the certain person. Fuji picked out Mizuki Hajime's photograph from the stack and placed it inside his pocket. Neither Kawamura nor Ryoma dared to ask what he planned to do with it.

The picture they found in Momo's wallet seemed to suit his personality perfectly. It was exactly the kind of picture that would only appear in the wallets of hotheaded teenagers.

The photograph was taken some time ago, when the team had been invited to an unofficial practice match by a school not far from the famous Disneyland. The friendly hosts treated the regulars to Disneyland and Momo and Eiji had dragged their reluctant teammates up a roller coaster. The amusement park offered the service of snapping a picture of them during the ride, and Momo had bought a copy though most of the others decided not to get one since it cost quite a lot.

Every one of the regulars could be seen clearly on the snapshot. Tezuka and Oishi sat together in the first row, Oishi looking like he was ready to barf from terror and Tezuka with twitching veins that betrayed his apathy. Behind them was Kaidoh who was on the verge of tears and Kawamura who looked relatively happy. The rest weren't doing anything normal people usually did on roller coasters. Fuji and Eiji, who were in the next row, were studying the large map of the park and sharing a bag of Cheetos, completely unaffected by the violent twists and dips of the carts. Ryoma was obviously asleep, and Momo was trying to climb out of his seat beside him. Inui was the most extraordinary one of all. He had managed to finish a 3000-piece puzzle in the course of the ride.

Everything had been so lovely then.

Talking in a low voice —not that they were worrying about disturbing anybody— the three remaining regulars stepped out of Momo's room.

"That day was really fun. If we could only go back –hey, do you guys remember that we ran into some Hyoutei people that day?"

Kawamura blinked in nostalgia. "Of course I remember. I even remember that when Atobe saw us, he said 'ore-sama no bigini'. I thought-"

At this point all three stopped walking in unison. None of them cared to question just what Kawamura had thought.

The door that Atobe had strongly advised them against opening had creaked open by itself.

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome:D

To Elyon: Thanks for the review:) Happy belated birthday! Any birthday wishes?

To syusukeblue: Thanks for the review:)

To loove it!!: Thanks for the review:) I'm not going to make this end the way the original did because it would make it easier to figure out... the judge really is quite freaky xD


	24. Chapter 24

"So this door actually requires a password to open, like 'open sesame'," Fuji mused, stepping closer to the heavy door.

"Ore-sama no bigi ni," Ryoma tried uncertainly.

The open door immediately slammed shut.

"Ore-sama no bigi ni," Ryoma tried again.

The door squeaked and swung back open.

"You're right, senpai, this door really is voice-activated," Ryoma concluded.

"It does seem like something Atobe would do out of boredom," Kawamura shrugged uneasily.

"Well, I guess we ought to check inside," Fuji suggested. "We might find the rest of Oishi's body parts."

"We better bring weapons," Ryoma said thoughtfully. "If someone dangerous is hiding inside, I don't want to walk into a trap unarmed."

The senpai agreed to his proposal. Fortunately they had just checked the whole house, including everybody's rooms not long ago and were pretty sure where they could find things that could be used as weapons. They took a tennis racket from Oishi's room, a garden rake from Inui's room (they had no idea why he brought it to the island) and a weight from Kaidoh's room, and then headed bravely into the forbidden room.

--

"Seems pretty normal to me," Fuji muttered, looking around. The room looked like an ordinary bedroom —a king-sized bed with polka-dotted sheets, a grand piano with a layer of dust, a dresser with an unproportionate mirror, a porcelain vase standing on the purple carpet. Nothing out of the ordinary. "Why forbid us from coming in?"

"Perhaps he wants this room privately and doesn't want someone to dirty it," Kawamura theorized.

"I don't see any sign that someone had been here recently," Fuji observed. "Too bad, I thought that we could find some helpful information or Oishi's corpse hanging on the ceiling in this room."

"I found something," Ryoma put in, holding up a green notebook.

Kawamura stared, "Eh? So Inui had been here?"

"Or maybe it's Atobe's," Fuji smiled wickedly, wondering whether he would be able to find some interesting facts about Atobe in the thin notebook.

Ryoma flipped the notebook open and read the first page out loud. "The Secret Diary of Hiyoshi Wakashi."

Kawamura was utterly confused. "What is Hiyoshi Wakashi's secret diary doing here?"

Fuji took the notebook from Ryoma and began to read the entries out loud. "June 1st. I fried some shrimp for my family today. They were very happy and praised my cooking. June 2nd. I am sad because my dear kitty is missing. My cousin must have chased her away. Sob. June 7th. Teacher offered me a cup of tea. It was so good. I can drink another hundred cups for sure. June 13th, my house is so stuffy."

"I don't see what this has to do with our current situation," Ryoma finally pointed out after Fuji had finished with the June entries and was moving onto July.

"Where can Oishi be?" Kawamura wondered. "We have already looked through every nook and cranny in the house, haven't we?"

"I believe that we won't be able to find him in one piece, or just a few pieces for that matter," Fuji slowly stated.

"What do you mean?"

"Seeing Eiji's bear in so many pieces gave me an idea. It's not easy to hide a whole body, but it is far simpler if the body is in many tiny pieces. I think the rest of Oishi is probably hidden underground or in the wall, grinded into juice with a juicer and flushed down the toilet, or maybe eaten. Either way, it would be much easier to get rid of a body if it's in little pieces."

The two others looked at Fuji and shuddered.

"One thing though," Fuji continued, "it's relatively difficult to split a head into pieces, so it's probably still intact. Something as big as a head won't be that easy to hide. Do you think we should go look for Oishi's head?"

Ryoma's and Kawamura's brains suddenly filled up with conjured images of items they had seen in the house that could be Oishi's head in disguise (the huge round light bulb in the living room, the football under the staircase, etc). The threesome was all suddenly overwhelmed with a feeling of disgust and fear and all ran to hide in their respective rooms, where they spent the rest of the day.

--

Sunday dawned, bright and cheery. The rain had stopped, and the knowledge that someone would come to pick them up by the end of the day also seemed like a good prospect. Even though all three thought it would be safer to stay in their own rooms, the urge to eat and go to the toilet still got the better of them and finally they came out of their rooms together, figuring that as long as all three stuck together it would be somehow all right. After all, they _had _stuck through such an impossibly long week, so holding on for one more day didn't seem that hard.

"I like the blue sky," Fuji commented, watching the clouds.

"Yeah, so do I," Kawamura smiled.

"Mada mada dane," Ryoma smiled too, looking down at his sneakers.

It was the last sentence he ever said.

At noon, Kawamura was in such good spirits that he actually agreed to Fuji's volunteer request to make lunch. Still, no matter how joyous he was, he wouldn't be stupid enough to leave Fuji to do anything he liked with the food, so he hung around to make sure that Fuji didn't put crazy ingredients in his cooking. The two were chatting and having quite a nice time, until they realized that Ryoma, whom they thought was present but quiet, was nowhere to be found.

"Oh dear," Kawamura murmured, suddenly snapping out from his happy conversation with Fuji. "Wasn't he standing right here a while ago?" (Even though "a while ago" was probably half an hour ago, as Kawamura had been too busy looking at Fuji to notice anything else.)

Fuji put down his frying pan. "Where could he have gone?"

"Let's split up and–no, let's go look for him together," Kawamura proposed, suddenly reminded of the fact that no matter if Ryoma had left on his own accord or had been abducted, it was impossible that Fuji had anything to do with it and it would be safer to stay with him than to run about alone.

"Let's try his room," Fuji decided, and briskly headed towards Ryoma's room, yanking open the door. "Not here."

"He's not in the bathroom either," Kawamura observed, a sense of dread slowly creeping closer. "Can he be in someone else's room?"

"Why would he want to go in other people's rooms? There are corpses in there." Fuji frowned. "Or maybe he could be in my room."

"I don't see what he can be doing in your room," Kawamura shook his head in confusion.

In the end, even though they were reluctant to go in all these rooms with different corpses, they still checked each room anyway. Ryoma was not in any of them.

Fuji concluded, "Well, we can narrow it down to a few possibilities. Since we were together the whole time, neither of us could have done anything to Echizen. Therefore, he either was the murderer, left to set up traps or make preparations for killing both of us, or was kidnapped by Oishi, because we still don't have complete evidence that Oishi is dead. He could have managed to magically saw off his own arm in some way we don't know, found a place to hide, and wait until the right time comes. It's also possible that Oishi and Echizen are working together as partners in crime, though it's pretty hard to imagine that. Anyway, no matter which it is, we should stick together and we'll be all right."

"Oishi and… Echizen? Seems like an impossible combination to me," Kawamura cringed at the thought.

Fuji picked up a knife and an eggbeater. "We don't have to worry though. Even if they really are working together, they can't beat us, because you've got amazing burning skills. Right, Taka-san?"

"Um, yeah," Kawamura muttered shyly. He never really understood why he had such a strange 'burning' talent, but perhaps this was the perfect time to put it into use.

No matter what, he would not let anyone harm Fuji. That was what he thought.

That was what he had always thought.

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome.:)

To loove it!!: Thanks for the review:) It made me so happy…

To Elyon: Thanks for the review:D There are still two chapters to go, and then there will be the solution chapters. You can PM me if you know the ending. I'm really curious how everyone thinks it will end xD

To rikkaidailuvr: Thanks for the review:D

To Yukari: Thanks for the sweet review:) I still have exams. (cries)


	25. Chapter 25

Cautiously, Kawamura and Fuji headed out of the house. Kawamura went empty-handed after all, because if he had been holding a racket or any other weapon it would be too dangerous for Fuji, who was presently Kawamura's ally. Instead, Fuji was the one carrying kitchen appliances, ready to stuff them into Kawamura's hands as soon as anything happened. It would have been safer for them to lock themselves inside the house, but they headed out anyway because if Ryoma was attacked outside the house they should find him and offer help. As soon as they stepped out of the front door, Fuji locked it and slid the key into his pocket.

"Which direction?" Kawamura asked in a low voice, as if worried that someone would be waiting for them at the next corner with an axe in hand.

"I remember that the seventh line of the rhyme had something to do with paint," Fuji pondered, "and the storage room is probably the most likely place for us to find paint. Let's go."

Kawamura shuddered at the thought of entering the dark, creepy underground storage room, but he didn't exactly want to be left alone either, so he agreeably followed Fuji.

They never reached the storage room. As they turned a corner, they walked right into a bizarre scene. Yellow paint was splattered all over the grass and the wall of the house, and random red splotches were mixed with the yellow color, making a cubist painting that reminded Kawamura of Picasso.

If they were in a movie, they should have cried out something like "damn" and hurry over to investigate, but this wasn't a movie, and after a whole week of frightening occurrences, they knew better than to rush unheedingly into danger.

"Careful," Fuji warned Kawamura, gently grabbing his arm. They proceeded slowly and warily, eyes and ears alert. Fuji gripped his kitchen appliances tightly, preparing to pass them over to Kawamura any moment.

However, for the time being, weapons were not needed.

Both of them almost cried out at the sight in front of them. Even though they hadn't really been expecting to see Ryoma beaming at them and drinking Ponta amid the yellow paint, they hadn't quite expected to see his head —and only his head— standing there on the ground either. All his other body parts were absent, in their place a rough outline of a body had been painted. Their usually smug kouhai stared up at them with lifeless golden eyes, as if complaining that his senpai had not come to his rescue. A large bucket holding what was left of the yellow paint stood innocently beside Ryoma's head, with a look that said "don't look at me, not my fault."

"That's —cruel," Kawamura choked out. Well, it was not exactly the first day he had known that the murderer was cruel, but what else could he say? One couldn't actually expect him to say "don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" under such circumstances.

"Guess the murderer must be Oishi then," Fuji sighed, skillfully avoiding meeting Ryoma's eyes (not that Ryoma would care). "It can't be either of us, because we were together the whole time. It can't be the others, because when we last checked they were all dead in their beds. There's no one else on the island, and even though I still don't understand how Oishi could have sown off his arm or how he could do this to Echizen with one arm left, it simply can't be anyone else."

"But-" Kawamura stammered, "-but, why? Oishi had always been really caring and-"

"I have no idea why," Fuji explained solemnly, "but unless one of us miraculously managed to both murder Echizen and stay in the kitchen at the same time, or one of the others had put up such a convincing act of being dead, fooled us all along, killed Echizen and went right back to his bed to play dead in so little time, Oishi has to be the only logical suspect."

"But I don't believe that he could have done this to Echizen," Kawamura murmured, glancing at Ryoma's head and quickly turning away again.

"I can't believe that he could have done anything to all the others," Fuji whispered, "but I guess we'll have to admit that we were wrong."

"Yeah," Kawamura replied weakly.

"But we won't let him win though," Fuji changed his tone all in a sudden. "Now that we know it is him and have teamed up, he can't beat the two of us."

"True. Let's stay together from now on."

They smiled at each other. A new kind of bond had appeared between them. They had always been good friends, but coming together as a team in such a live-or-die situation was a different thing. It was good to know that he could completely trust his life with another person.

"Okay, so now the safest choice will be-" Fuji began, but stopped short when Kawamura abruptly jerked beside him.

"What?"

"Fuji, what's… that?"

Following Kawamura's pointing finger, Fuji saw a sign standing some fifty meters away. They had never noticed it standing there before. In fact, Fuji was quite sure that it had never been there at all.

"I think something's written on it," Fuji observed. It was too far for them to immediately discern the words, so Fuji took a few steps towards it.

"Could be a trap. Be careful," Kawamura muttered under his breath as he took a few steps towards the sign as well.

As they neared the wooden sign, a queer sense of foreboding crept upon both of them. Neither spoke, nor even ventured a look at the other. Unconsciously, Fuji let go of Kawamura's arm.

It felt strangely like the calm before a storm.

A few huge letters were sprayed in red on the sign: DOULIU. A big arrow pointed to the right.

The last two of the regulars remained silent. They wordlessly agreed to follow the direction of the arrow.

They had been walking for less than two minutes, but it felt like a century. They were still avoiding each other's eyes. The trusting relationship that they had just established was shattered by the appearance of the sign.

On the second day that they had arrived at this place, when taking a walk together, Fuji and Kawamura had noticed a cliff at the less visited grounds of the island. They realized that they were nearing the cliff now.

Another giant sign stood right on the edge of the cliff. On it was a single arrow, pointing downwards.

Kawamura almost took a step forward, having the sudden urge to look down even though it was pretty obvious what he would see anyway, but before he moved a sudden voice in his mind shouted at him that it was dangerous to stand at the edge of the cliff, where he could be easily shoved right over. Therefore, he stood rooted to the spot, while Fuji ventured forward to check. Kawamura concluded from Fuji's shuddering gasp that the sight down there was probably just like what he had imagined. Slowly, he leaned forward to peek downwards as well, though still cautiously staying a step behind Fuji. Oishi was indeed down there, appearing to have plunged down from the edge of the cliff to his death. Blood was everywhere. Both Kawamura and Fuji quickly averted their gaze, not so much because they hated seeing bodies but of what the certainty of Oishi's death indicated.

"We didn't leave the house yesterday; he had probably been here all along-" Kawamura took a deep breath, voice trembling. He wanted so much to hide the fear inside his voice, but he just couldn't.

Fuji nodded, looking directly into Kawamura's eyes. "Yes, and now we are truly the only two left on the island."

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading xD Reviews are very welcome.:)

To Elyon: Thanks for the review. It makes me blush in happiness. (blushes)

To love it!!: Thanks for the review:D Actually I have to thank my cool beta for that sentence xD


	26. Chapter 26

"Well, it seems that it's just you and me," Fuji observed casually. Kawamura found it impossible to guess what Fuji was thinking behind those closed eyes. He felt himself shiver, though it was not cold. Fuji had always been a mystery to Kawamura, and he was just as mysterious now.

"Um, yeah –so I guess the truth is pretty obvious now," Kawamura replied, trying desperately not to let his voice tremble.

Fuji lifted his eyes to meet Kawamura's. His strangely determined expression made Kawamura cringe even more inside.

"So –it's you who killed them, Fuji—"

Kawamura did not want to believe that Fuji was the murderer. Ever since they've known each other, Kawamura had always felt that Fuji was different from anyone he had met—he was a genius, so frightfully skilled in everything that he almost didn't seem like a human.

Kawamura had felt so happy when this renowned genius had become friends with him. As time passed, he realized that even geniuses need friends.

He was very glad to be Fuji's friend.

Even though he didn't want to believe the truth in front of him, survival instinct took over anyway. He had never felt his brain function so speedily before—it was grasping at every thought, every possible plan, every way that could help him somehow get out of this situation alive. It was rather difficult really—Fuji had all the weapons, and he had none. And if Fuji had already mercilessly killed so many, it was very unlikely that he would simply let Kawamura go unscathed.

Kawamura felt fortunate that Fuji had kitchen appliances (even though there was a large knife among these appliances) instead of a gun. Fuji could not have been stronger than he was. He still had a fighting chance if it was close range combat. No matter what, he needed to stall for time. If he could somehow talk Fuji into handing him the weapons—

"—Why?" Kawamura blurted out the first question that came to mind.

"No idea," Fuji smiled, taking a few steps towards Kawamura, causing him to quickly take a few nervous steps backward also.

Kawamura could not understand how Fuji managed to appear to be happily cooking with him and murder Ryoma in cold blood at the same time. He could not understand how Fuji had killed so many so violently with his thin, frail frame. He could not understand how Fuji could let his teammates die without feeling a bit of pity, and even managed to pretend skillfully that he was overwhelmed with grief.

He could not understand why. He could not understand why Fuji killed everyone.

Fuji kept coming closer, and Kawamura kept stepping back. Kawamura did not want to harm Fuji, but to protect himself and to avenge the others, he knew he had to find a way to get hold of the weapons.

Fuji kept opening his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, yet Kawamura knew that he didn't really need to hear Fuji explain. He found himself mumbling pointless, illogical thoughts, just as if to block out whatever Fuji had to say with his endless chatter. Not until now did he realize that he had never truly understood Fuji.

Having walked backwards for some time, Kawamura hardly realized that they had come to the bamboo forest until his back rammed straight into a large bamboo.

"Good… more places to hide in a forest," Kawamura told himself. He had been walking backwards for what—two minutes? Yet he felt even more exhausted than when he had run a hundred laps.

He felt so tired. So dead tired. Because he felt so dead tired, he grabbed a bamboo beside him for support. And immediately-

"BURNING!"

As Kawamura automatically transformed into a large ball of fire, he saw a gentle, assuring smile appear on the ever-smiling Fuji's face.

It was so beautiful, that smile.

--

Kawamura could never remember what he was doing when he was in burning mode. It was the same this time –when he snapped back to reality, the bamboo stick having slipped from his hand, he saw that Fuji was on the ground in a heap, and he had no idea how Fuji had got in that position.

He wondered if he had somehow killed Fuji in his burning fit. Fuji certainly didn't look conscious –but he could have been pretending.

Very, very carefully, Kawamura edged towards Fuji's limp body, and kicked it with all his might.

No, of course he didn't do that. He was too nice.

Very, very carefully, Kawamura edged towards Fuji's limp body. Kneeling down slowly, he looked for a pulse. There was no sign of life.

_I really am awfully strong,_ Kawamura thought to himself with surprise.

Finally, he had finished off the killer. He had avenged his teammates, and he could get off the island, safe and alive. Yet he did not feel joyful at all.

Gathering up Fuji in his arms, Kawamura decided to put Fuji on his own bed, just like they did all the others. As for Ryoma and Oishi, there wasn't much he could do to help them, so he just left them where they were.

Fuji was even lighter than Kawamura had expected him to be. Gently putting him down on the bed, Kawamura sighed and sat down on the living room sofa. He was the only one left now—even though he was in the same house with quite a lot of corpses, he felt strangely serene.

Pouring himself a cup of water to quench his thirst, Kawamura remembered the happy days he had with his tennis club members. He missed every one of them.

The water tasted curiously like beer. Kawamura drank on anyway –perhaps someone had tampered with the water, and he didn't care.

Perhaps that was what he wanted: to be with the others.

As the world gradually slipped into darkness, Kawamura found himself looking at the little wooden monkeys on the living room shelf. There were still two left, looking at him blankly and innocently.

Before he closed his eyes for the last time, he heard the sound of a cello being played, coming from the direction of Fuji's room. He knew nothing about classical music, but the melody sounded like a suitable requiem.

Too tired to think anymore, Kawamura finally abandoned all the cares and worries of life and drifted into unconsciousness.

--

In the evening, when people came on a boat to pick up the regulars and bring them home, they found all nine of them dead. The only survivor was a Himalayan cat, which was happily wandering around the island. All of Japan was shocked by the news, especially Atobe, but none could actually explain what had happened in the week on the island.

**The End**—there's still the solution chapter though, so it's not actually the end yet…

--

Yep, this is the end of the "problem" part of the story. Who is the murderer?

**You decide!**

If you want it to be Kaidoh, read ending A.

If you want it to be Momo, read ending B.

If you want both Kaidoh and Momo to be murderers, read ending C.

NO, of course I can't let you decide. Just imagine how many extra chapters I'll have to write. There is only **one** correct solution.

If you like, please review and tell me what you believe to be the truth behind this whole story, though it's kind of obvious now. If you don't want to do that, reviews are welcome anyway:)

TBC.

To loove it!!: Thanks for the review:) The solution chapter(s) will appear next week. I hope I won't make everyone disappointed:(

To Elyon: Thank you so much for all the compliments... (blushes)

To ochibilover: And thank you for reading!:D

To Yukari: Sadly, here in Taiwan there are still two weeks until summer vacation:( Are you already on vacation? (envies) Still many exams to go... (cries) Thanks for the review:D


	27. Solution Chapter I

The Solution Chapter

(AKA Seigaku Regulars In Hell)

"This is quite a surprise," Inui observed, pushing up his glasses as he spoke. "I hadn't expected everybody to appear here in Hell already."

Indeed, neither Inui nor most of the others had expected to see every single one of their teammates present in Hell, where they were currently situated. There was the issue that Kaidoh had always been a nice guy and didn't really deserve to go to Hell, and there was also the issue that the murderer (or murderers) shouldn't have been dead at all. Yet here they were, all nine of them, right beside an unnamed river in Hell. Most of them were having a reasonably good time sitting around and chatting, just as they used to when they were alive. Momo and Kaidoh were having a fight in the river, which contained not water, but rather flowing lava. It was a frightening amber color and bubbling furiously, but neither Momo nor Kaidoh found it dangerous because, after all, they were dead and didn't really need to care.

"Stupid viper, I pity your fashion sense. That's, like, the most stupid outfit I've ever seen on anyone," Momo snorted, pointing at Kaidoh's awfully detailed Renaissance-style dress.

"You think I actually_ like_ it? It's not my fault that I'm wearing this," Kaidoh angrily retorted. He was so angry that he decided to take off the dress then and there—he was dead anyway, he didn't care.

"But Kaidoh," Kawamura, who was sitting innocently aside, exclaimed, "even though we're all dead, you can't just go around naked."

"I have nothing against that," Inui remarked, pushing up his glasses to get a better look.

"It seems that nothing has changed at all, Tezuka," Fuji smiled, patting his dog Fujiko, who was obediently crouched by him.

"Hm," Tezuka murmured in reply. He was in good spirits, having reunited with his beloved chicken. It clucked at him affectionately from his side.

"Mada mada dane," Ryoma commented out of nowhere, hiding a dissatisfied smirk under the rim of his cap. His senpai had their pets, but he didn't have Karupin. It was good to know that Karupin was probably still alive, since he was nowhere to be found in Hell, but still he missed the fat cat. Well, maybe he could find some decent cats in Hell to replace Karupin.

Oishi, meanwhile, was still trying to get over his stomachache. Eiji was sitting silently in a corner by himself, lamenting the fact that he was the only one who had died in front of everybody. It was so embarrassing. He was positive that he would never get over it.

Tezuka sighed. "Well, Inui, weren't you trying to announce something?"

"Yes," Inui pushed up his glasses again, looking solemn. "What I was trying to say is, since everybody's present, don't you guys want to hear my carefully reasoned theory on the murderer's identity?"

"I don't. I already _know _who the murderer is. I don't need a theory," Ryoma shrugged without interest.

"Neither do I," Tezuka stated coldly.

"And neither do I," Fuji grinned up at Inui.

Inui looked crestfallen. "You all know the murderer already, but _I_ don't! Can't you just let me have the pleasure of figuring it out by myself?"

Fuji smiled wickedly, knowing that the best way to destroy one's interest in a mystery novel is to write the name of the murderer in the middle of the book. "We might as well just tell you," he began, "the murderer is—"

"DON'T TELL ME! LET ME FIGURE IT OUT _MYSELF_!" Inui screamed, throwing a tantrum on the ground. He figured that since he was dead, he could be as OOC as he liked.

"Fine, do what you want," Ryoma shrugged again with a "whatever, just go on with your theory so we can get it over with sooner" expression on his bored face. "Probably no one will be paying attention though—we all know who the murderer is already."

"It's not fair. You guys were killed by the murderer himself, but _I_ was poisoned, so I couldn't have known who did it. I have to find the killer with my data. Data never lies," Inui declared, exhibiting a little black notebook.

Oishi stared in surprise. "But the notebook had disappeared, hadn't it?"

"I have a spare copy," Inui explained. "I hid it in a secret pocket of my pants so no one would find it."

"Oh," Oishi nodded.

"On with my theory," Inui continued. "Of course, the first step in my deductions is to eliminate myself, for I know that I am not a murderer. The next step is to consider all the possible combinations. After an amount of deliberation, I conclude that the murderer is male."

"Isn't it kind of obvious?" Momo pointed out, crawling ashore before being dragged down into the boiling lava by Kaidoh once again.

"According to my data," Inui went on, "the murderer's age is somewhere between 10 and 88."

"Wow, I could never have guessed," Ryoma muttered sarcastically.

"Also, judging from the fact that the murderer was able to write 'Gone to Douliu' and 'Gone hiking', I believe that he must know at least a little Japanese," Inui disregarded the comments from the others and went on with his theory.

Even Eiji finally had to stop angsting in his little corner and put in, "Inui, can't you just skip the obvious parts and start with the _real_ theory already?"

Inui looked hurt. "Aw, don't be so impatient. I'm getting there. Well, to conclude, as soon as I met you guys and watched the interactions between you people, I can be 100 percent sure who the murderer is."

"That's not so hard—all you have to do is note which person is deliberately ignored by everyone," Ryoma rolled his eyes and scoffed. "That doesn't require any deductions at all. If you are really going to say anything worth my attention, better begin now or I'm not listening anymore."

"Fine, fine, I was just joking," Inui sighed and cleared his throat. "Okay, here goes my brilliant theory. I'll start with my chain of thoughts on the day we found those little wooden monkeys."

"Go on," Fuji said pleasantly, stroking the back of his pet and beaming at Inui.

"It seemed too much of a coincidence for the monkeys to be discovered right after Fuji and I attempted to scare you all with the story of the little Indian figures. The timing was too perfect to be ignored. Therefore, the top two on the suspect list of putting the monkey figures there should have been Fuji and myself. However, when I thought about it, I know for a fact that it wasn't me, and with Fuji's height I doubt that he was able to place the wooden monkeys on the shelf or take them down. He could have used a ladder, but I saw no sign that the ladder in the underground storage room had been moved at all, and besides it was too much trouble to do it every day, not to mention that someone surely would have spotted him doing it. As a result, I believe that there must be something that is not human in the whole scheme."

"Not… human? You mean like a ghost?" Kaidoh's face turned deathly pale. He was still hopelessly frightened of supernatural beings even though being dead himself.

"I don't believe in stuff like that," Inui gestured at his audience. "Look, here we are, all ghosts ourselves, and do you see any possible way for us to leave Hell and return to the human world again? No. Therefore I conclude that it can't be a ghost. By the way, how did you guys reach this river anyway? I remember walking for three days and nights nonstop on a rough footpath before arriving here."

"I appeared right here as soon as I died," Kaidoh shrugged.

"I came here on a raft. I had been traveling around in the rapids of lava before I saw viper here and decided to stop and chat," hotheaded Momo declared happily.

"I reached here after hiking over two mountains," Tezuka replied expressionlessly. "The mountains in Hell are very hard to climb."

"I came here by subway," Eiji muttered, still sulking.

"That must be quite comfortable._ I_ had to fight my way through all those thorny bushes that seem to follow me everywhere," Oishi said enviously, exhibiting bruises and cuts on his arms and legs.

"Mine was even more comfortable," Ryoma put in, not even bothering to be nice, "I got here in a Mercedes Benz."

"That is so unfair," Oishi joined Eiji in his sulking at a corner.

"As soon as I died I found myself in front of an elevator," Fuji offered, "and while I was still waiting for it to come to my floor Taka-san appeared as well, so we came down by elevator together."

"Hmm. So we finally all arrived at the same place somehow. Fate must have wanted us to come together so this mystery can be solved and justice can prevail," Inui nodded. "This means that I should do my best to present the solution. Be awed by my amazing prowess!"

The others threw whatever they had at hand at Inui because he should have already begun seriously outlining his theory some time ago instead of injecting all those useless comments, and imitating Atobe only made him look more stupid.

Inui successfully fended off all the objects that came flying at him and began his deducting once again. "Yes, just like I said previously, I believe that there must be something that is not human in the whole scheme, but by that I didn't mean a ghost. It must have been an animal. The dog could not have climbed so high, and when we discovered the monkeys we hadn't found Karupin yet. So, my primary suspect had been Archimedes the Second."

"Can't be," Tezuka objected, protectively hiding his chicken behind himself, "my Archimedes the Second would never—"

"Well, I decided that it couldn't have been him anyway, he had no hands to put up or take down those figures," Inui explained.

"Cluck, cluck, cluck," Archimedes the Second protested.

"What he meant was 'he laughed at me because I have no hands. I will sue him,'" Tezuka translated calmly.

"Smart chicken," Momo commented and was yet again pulled down into the river by Kaidoh.

"Even though Karupin could climb very high, he had no hands to arrange the figures either," Inui continued, completely unaffected, "and thus I conclude that it must be an animal with hands. There must be a_ real_ monkey on the island."

"Makes sense," Kawamura looked thoughtful, "that way we can explain why a monkey figure was taken away on Friday even though everyone had an alibi, as well as the mysterious disappearance of your other notebook."

"It matches with the Taiwanese rhyme as well," Inui added, satisfied with his own theory. "There are few trees on this island besides those bamboos, so the monkey probably hadn't been living here all along. Someone must have brought it onto the island, and this 'someone' is likely the murderer. Keeping a monkey in the house would be too dangerous, so I thought that its owner probably kept it somewhere else on the island. Yet every time we checked around the place, I found no suitable hiding spot. It was quite unfortunate for me. In fact, I believe that the poison in my juice that killed me was also put in by the monkey."

"It must have also put poison in my water on the last day," Kawanura agreed. "So, was Eiji's Coke poisoned by the monkey too?"

"No," Fuji interrupted, "between the time that Eiji had opened his Coke and the time that he drank it, there was no chance for the monkey to slip anything inside. We were all there, we would have seen."

Kawamura asked, confused, "Then how was he poisoned?"

"I wish I knew," Eiji joined in the conversation.

Inui was very unhappy that the conversation was flowing in a direction that he was unfamiliar with. "Stop talking about things I don't know! I didn't live to see the Incident of Eiji's Coke, _remember?_"

"It certainly is harder for you to come up with a solution only knowing the events of the first four days," Fuji patted Inui understandingly. "Don't worry, we can give you a full account of the happenings after you are gone."

"But if you tell him, it's sort of the same thing as telling him the identity of the murderer," Kawamura pointed out.

"The viper and I are the most unfortunate, really," Momo, who hated to be left out of any conversation, complained. "We didn't live long enough to witness anything _exciting_."

"It's not as fun as you think," Ryoma assured him.

Ignoring everyone's comments, Inui went on with his theory. "So now I've solved the problem of the disappearance of the monkeys. The existence of a real monkey is the first important point. The second important point is the existence of an accomplice."

"So there really _are_ accomplices?" Momo cried out happily from where he was continuously dragged down into the river. "That's so cool! I love accomplices."

"Why do you love accomplices? You were killed by them," Ryoma smirked at Momo.

"Because I like people who work together," Momo explained.

"At first I thought that there must have been only one murderer, because it was hard to believe that the whole plan of using a rhyme and killing according to its lines could come from two different people's brains. Two could not have had the same line of thinking on so many points. And besides, the fact that a monkey was used seemed to imply that the murderer did not want assistance from another person. But after Tezuka's death, I started to consider the possibility of the murderer having a partner in crime."

Tezuka frowned, "Why?"

"Considering that you were always very careful, and had in fact stated yourself that we must never, ever go anywhere alone, it must have been something really desperate that made you run head-on into a dangerous situation. Since you were a good captain that cared about your teammates, it was probably seeing a teammate in danger that made you reckless. To make it seem that someone was in danger, there had to be one 'victim' and one murderer."

"Hm," Tezuka nodded.

"I was right, wasn't I? And there was also—"

"There was also the fact that the knife was in your chest instead of your back," Fuji put in placidly, looking as if he was expecting that someone would order pizza.

Inui continued approvingly, "Yes, there was also the fact that the knife was—Fuji! Don't take the spotlight from me. You have been alive for so many days, why can't you just shut up and let me have all the attention?"

"Well, it's true that you died earlier than I had, but before you died you certainly had quite a lot of lines," Fuji shrugged.

Inui realized that this was true, but he didn't want to admit it and therefore went on pretending that he didn't hear. "Now, Tezuka, if there had been only one person, it would have made much more sense to attack you from the back instead of from the front, for you were pretty strong. Therefore, after you have died I began to think that there could be two or more people working together."

"Your deductions are right so far," Tezuka nodded, still expressionless.

"He's Inui, after all," Fuji smiled his usual smile.

"Aw, you three are in your own world already. Let me join in the conversation too," Eiji pouted from aside.

"Sure," Fuji smiled indulgently at his friend, "we haven't forgotten about you guys. And Eiji, I have my own explanation as to how the poison had gotten into your Coke between the time that you opened the can and the time that you took a sip."

"STOP TALKING ABOUT THINGS I DON'T KNOW!" Inui screamed, throwing a temper tantrum again because he figured that since he could be as OOC as he liked he might as well take advantage of it.

"It's not my fault that you died so early," Fuji shrugged. "But this is quite an interesting problem though. Inui, here's the situation: there are a few cans of Coke that have never been opened and look the same. Everyone drinks from one random can, but only one dies. No one has a chance to put poison into his cup, because even though he has been running about, the can has been in his own hand all the time. How do you explain this?"

"I don't know exactly what happened," Inui began slowly, "but I can only come up with two possibilities: a) he pretended to be dead and b) he poisoned himself."

"True," Fuji nodded at Inui, "but Eiji couldn't have pretended to die. No matter how skilled an actor he could ever be it was just impossible to act that convincingly. You were not there though, so we can't blame you for not being able to distinguish whether he was acting or not. Your second assumption is the same as mine though. Eiji, you put the poison in your can _yourself_, didn't you?"

"But—Eiji isn't the suicidal type! He wouldn't have done that," Kawamura, one of the rare few who still had no idea of the true solution (even though he was the last to die) gasped in surprise.

"I don't think Eiji's the suicidal type either," Fuji agreed. "And that leaves only one possibility. That is—"

"—That is, he thought the powder or whatever he added into his drink was not poison but something else," Inui finished for him, wanting to get back at Fuji for interrupting his speech previously.

Ryoma rolled his eyes at the sheer stupidity of this action. "That was too dumb. Kikumaru-senpai, did you think that it was _sugar_ or something?"

Fuji's eyes slowly opened. "No matter what he thought it was, the fact that he would add something to his own drink and the fact that he falsely declared having seen eyes in the disco room have already made it quite obvious, isn't it?"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? TALK ABOUT SOMETHING THAT I KNOW!" Inui was in a screaming fit again.

Paying no attention to OOC!Inui, Fuji turned solemnly to Eiji. "The windows were closed in the disco room. There were no animals inside, nor was it possible that there could be any eyes. You had deliberately lied to get us to the disco room so your death would fit the rhyme: _On the fifth day of the week, the little monkey will dance for you._"

Gently focusing his blue eyes on his shivering friend, Fuji looked more serious than he had ever been. "Eiji, you are a murderer."

It was not a question. It was a statement, ending with a period.

"Huh? Really?" Momo, who had no idea what was going on for the most part, exclaimed in surprise.

"Well, not actually a murderer—I'd rather call it 'someone who knew but didn't tell.'" Fuji said, his tone softening at the pleading eyes of his friend and long-time classmate.

"Thanks," Eiji whispered gratefully, half in tears.

"I guess I can be considered another 'someone who knew but didn't tell', though," Fuji pondered. "Eiji, I know you so well that I had known that there was definitely something wrong with you since the day Kaidoh died."

Eiji stared, wiping his tears with the back of his hand, not having any tissues around, "Then why didn't you tell on me?"

"I was so busy considering my relationship with Taka-san that I forgot about everything else," Fuji explained.

"What kind of reason was _that_? If you had said something earlier we wouldn't have to die!" Ryoma shouted, almost pouncing on Fuji in his anger.

Fuji smiled his sadistic smile again. "Come on, Echizen, I thought Kaidoh would be too lonely in Hell and we might as well join him. See what fun he's having fighting Momo?"

"But… but…" Ryoma was too outraged for words.

"Besides, I've always wanted to see what Hell is like. It's quite a nice place really," Fuji added placidly.

"I hate you, senpai," Ryoma covered his face with his hands.

"Still, Eiji," Fuji sighed, turning once again to his redheaded friend, "I didn't really want to be too hard on you. After all, as I had said, you are really just 'someone who knew but didn't tell.'"

This was not a question either. This was a statement, ending with a period.

Fuji turned upon Inui. After all, Fuji was really very nice inside and was willing to let Inui have the pleasure of announcing the culprit. "So, Inui, who do you think the murderer is?"

Inui was silent for a few seconds. His sharp glance swept over everyone present.

"_Oh man._ _Where the fuck is that goddamned Oishi Syuichiro_?"

"He must have run away somewhere in the middle of the discussion. I'm sure it isn't that difficult to find him though," Fuji, who was new to Hell but still somehow knew quite a lot about the place, theorized, "for from what I've heard about the laws of Hell, every Hell resident has one and only one kind of transportation. Therefore, Taka-san and I can only move about in elevators, and Echizen can only get to places by his Mercedes Benz. Since Oishi can only walk around among thorny bushes, he couldn't have gone far yet. Echizen, if you go after him in your Benz you will probably find him very soon."

Tezuka, for once, was dumbstruck. "Did you mean that wherever I go, I have to hike?"

Momo was also in shock. "If I can only use a raft, does that mean I can't go anywhere where there's no lava?"

Kaidoh was almost in tears. "Since I appeared right here as soon as I died, does that mean that I can never go anywhere else?"

"Poor viper, no wonder you keep pulling me into the lava to keep you company," Momo said sympathetically. "Don't worry, we'll take turns to come and visit."

"I think it means that you might be able to teleport," Fuji assured Kaidoh.

"Fshuu," Kaidoh was immediately satisfied.

"Aw, can we switch?" Momo looked envious.

--

While everything is a mess and everyone is trying to capture the escaped murderer, we might as well take a look at the Videorecording of What Really Happened.

* * *

TBC, because putting the Videorecording of What Really Happened here would make it too long. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. Hope the solution won't be too disappointing...

To jv: Thanks for the review:D Actually Kaidoh and Momo seems like a good idea... maybe I'll make them the murderers next time (if there's a next time) XD

To loove it!!: Thanks for the review:D Don't be sad, I believe they are quite happy together in Hell.

To Elyon: Thanks for the review:D Aww... I don't deserve all those compliments. Thank you so much:)

JAM PROJECT came to Taiwan! (Well it was like two weeks ago, but still...) YAAY! (Sorry, shameless fangirling over a group of people old enough to be my parents.)


	28. Solution Chapter II

The solution chapter AKA Seigaku Regulars In Hell: Part Two

While the Seigaku regulars were busy trying to recapture their escaped culprit, we might as well take a look at what actually happened.

Oishi had been planning to get rid of the others for quite some time already. It all started on one day, when he was wondering what he could do to overcome the problem of his constant worrying about his friends. All in a sudden, a voice had shouted at him in his mind: "If you kill them, you will never have to worry about them anymore!"

Oishi considered this and found it logical, and thus proceeded to plan his great quest. He was lucky to have stumbled upon a very drunk Atobe one day on the streets, and being the considerate, helpful guy he was, phoned Atobe's chauffeur for him. He ended up being invited to tea in Atobe's enormous mansion and overhearing every detail about the island the Atobes had newly bought for Atobe's birthday, and quickly made a mental sketch of the layout of the whole place in his head, immediately deciding that this was the ideal spot to stage his murder.

Oishi had chosen a Chinese rhyme to base how the murders would be committed, and when his uncle returned from his round-the-world trip the following week with a pet monkey for him as a present, he concluded that the circumstances were so amazingly suitable for his plan that it would be too much of a pity to waste this opportunity. He trained the monkey, which he named 'Omelet Rice,' to become his accomplice and help him do all the things that he couldn't do. In the end the monkey had become a perfect partner in crime, and a very satisfied Oishi knew that it was time for the grand show to begin.

The trip had been Eiji's idea entirely—Oishi found it amusing how his doubles partner's fun-loving nature had brought him to his own death in the end— and all Oishi did was subtly hint that Atobe had an island and that it might be a nice place to stay. Eiji immediately fell in love with the idea, and in no time, everything was arranged.

Oishi had decided since the very beginning that he would kill according to a rhyme, but Kaidoh was not the one he intended to eliminate first. He had originally wanted to kill Ryoma for the first line of the rhyme, and had even bought a white t-shirt with sky-blue sleeves and a smiley face to put on the small kouhai to match with the line '_the little monkey wears a brand-new dress._' He had thought that it would look so cute on Ryoma.

But nothing worked out as Oishi had planned. He had done all the necessary preparations on the Sunday they had arrived, ordered his monkey to put the little monkey figures on the shelf when he was sure that everyone was out having fun, and then hid his monkey in a spot under the cliff which could only be reached by a concealed passage that he had heard about from Atobe's father. He was fully prepared to seek Ryoma out and wait to pounce on him as soon as he caught the smug boy alone when something unexpected happened that forced him to change his whole strategy.

It was the sudden appearance of Karupin.

Karupin, deciding that he couldn't live without Ryoma, concealed himself in Ryoma's duffel bag. Since Momo had lost to Ryoma on a bet and had to carry Ryoma's bags all the way, Ryoma did not notice that his duffel bag was slightly heavier than before. After they reached the island, Karupin took the first chance he had got to escape from the bag and had been roaming the island happily until he was discovered.

The existence of Karupin itself did not really create any problems. The trouble began on Monday, while his master was playing at the beach, blissfully unaware that he was the target of a murderer, Karupin ran into Kaidoh. Kaidoh had always adored cats. Whenever he saw those lovely cat paws and the wonderful curve of the cattail he would almost blush with pleasure. When Kaidoh saw Karupin he stooped down, attempting to stroke him. Karupin, being the proud cat he is, knew better than to talk to strangers, and ignored Kaidoh, walking away with his tail high in the air. Kaidoh followed Karupin all the way into the exhibition room, in which Karupin crawled into a Renaissance-style dress. To get the squirming cat out of the tangle, Kaidoh crawled into the overlarge dress too, and chased the still running Karupin all the way to the side of the stairs leading to the underground storage room, the dress still messily covering him. While the cat and the boy were having quite a good time playing hide-and-seek, Eiji, unfortunately for both Kaidoh and himself, passed by.

"Ah, it's Kaidoh," Eiji exclaimed to himself. He decided to give Kaidoh a surprise because he had nothing better to do.

"One, two, three, HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Kaidoh, who was standing on the top of the staircase and watching Karupin lovingly, was so shocked that he gave a little jump from where he was standing. He rolled all the way down the steep stairs, hit his head on the lowest step and died then and there.

"Kaidoh?" Seeing what happened, Eiji quickly ran to the side of his kouhai. Blood was slowly seeping through the green bandanna.

"KAIDOH!"

That was how Kaidoh Kaoru died, how Kikumaru Eiji became the murderer of Kaidoh Kaoru, and how Oishi Syuichiro's great plan was immediately shattered to pieces. According to his plan, there should be only one body for the first day, and that meant that he couldn't finish Ryoma off just yet and had to rewrite the script. Lucky for him, he was not finished with Ryoma yet when Kaidoh died, and it was also quite lucky for him that before telling anyone else Eiji had come to him first to ask for advice.

"This is not good," Oishi muttered, looking at his dead teammate with troubled eyes.  
Eiji, standing beside him, was in tears of fright and regret. "What should I do? What should I do, Oishi?"

"Well, Eiji," Oishi became solemn. "The best place to hide a leaf is in a forest. I have a plan to cover this."

"Huh?"

"Trust me. Are you with me?"

That was how the GMP (Golden Murderer Pair) came to exist.

Oishi brought his monkey to the house and ordered it to steal a wooden figure. The Golden Pair spent most of the afternoon doing normal stuff, and pretended to know nothing until Kaidoh's corpse was discovered.

Nobody had voiced any suspicion that the murderer might be among them that night. Oishi was glad that he had trained himself to be such a successful actor. Eiji was the only problem. He could break down and give them away anytime, and Oishi made a careful resolution to watch over his partner, not giving him any chance to let the cat out of the bag, especially to Fuji.

--

Tuesday was not as simple. The killing part was all right: Knowing that even if the always hungry Momo didn't eat he would surely drink water, Oishi had previously slipped some sleeping pills into his water bottle. Therefore, Momo slept like a baby that night, not even bothering to lock his door. Not that it would hinder the plan if he had locked it—Oishi could have made the monkey get in through the window and unlock the door for him from the inside anyway. Oishi dragged Momo from his bed out to the kitchen, killed him with a frozen fish and arranged the murder scene perfectly. He also poisoned Fuji's dog and slaughtered her, since having a loud animal with alert ears around was just too dangerous. Karupin was not a threat—though he also had good ears, he would probably stick to himself and not intervene by barking to wake everyone up like a dog would. Yes, the killing part was all right.

The difficult part was to talk Eiji out of turning himself in.

"Oishi, every time Fuji looked at me today he had the look that said 'Eiji, I know everything.' It is creeping me out!"

"He couldn't know. Don't worry. You'll be fine."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Oishi decided that leaving Eiji alive was too much a risk. He knew he had to get rid of him as soon as he had the chance.

--

After they found Momo dead and did not discover any signs of other people on the island, the mutual trust between the regulars had started to waver. Still, they remained for the most part a united group, because after all, Tezuka was there, and when Tezuka was there, they would always be a team.

Therefore, Tezuka had to go.

"It will be hard to make Tezuka let his guard down, so we must cooperate to finish him off."

"How?"

"Listen: don't eat the celery tonight. I'm going to tamper with it a bit."

The plan was carried out perfectly. With everyone fast asleep, the two managed to kill Tezuka without disturbing anyone much. Tezuka had no fighting chance with these two, because after all it was hard for one to win against two, just like it was unfair to have one play singles against two people. Which was why everyone felt sorry for the guy from Higa that had to play against two Eijis.

Ryoma was the only one who was not affected by the stuff Oishi put in the celery, for he hated celery and didn't take any of it. However, he woke up at all the wrong times so did not see the murderers' actions, and did not cause any problems.

There was also an irrelevant occurrence that night. It had nothing to do with Oishi's murder plans, and did not affect it in any way.

Everyone knew that when Kawamura got hold of a tennis racket, he started burning. But only one person knew that when Kawamura got hold of a badminton racket, he sleepwalked.

To find out just exactly what relationship he had with Kawamura, Fuji handed him a badminton racket. Being a genius, Fuji taught himself to sleepwalk, and the sleepwalking pair had a very nice chat that night. As they chatted and walked around, they finally climbed up to the cupboard and went on chatting there until they snapped out of their sleepwalking mode and fell into slumber again.

--

In the afternoon Inui found out the pattern of the murders and that it had to do with the rhyme. Oishi was glad inside—after all, if no one had discovered this pattern, it would have been pretty pointless for him to think it up in the first place. He totally adored Inui for that.

While Oishi was changing in his room on the Wednesday afternoon when they had planned to have a slumber party in the living room, he heard a knock on the door, and opened it.

"Oishi, I'm so scared…"

Oishi quickly pulled Eiji into his room and shut the door. Oishi couldn't let the others hear their conversation. Eiji could be so reckless.

"I don't want to kill anymore. Can we just turn ourselves in? Please?"

Oishi sighed inside. If Eiji had not accidentally caused Kaidoh's death, Oishi would never, ever had let such a dangerous person in on his plan. He wished he had found a way to finish Eiji off earlier.

"Eiji, do you want to go to prison? If you're not old enough to go to prison, they will take your parents, you know. Do you want anything to happen to them?"

"No…"

"That's it. Don't worry, you'll be okay. I'll protect you."

After all, if something unexpected happened to Eiji, there would be even more trouble, and another change of plans.

"Thank you, Oishi…"

Oishi saw Eiji to his room and flopped down on his bed with a sigh. He was really, really worried.

Why couldn't everything go according to plan?

* * *

TBC.

Too long… had to cut it into two parts. The next chapter will really be the last.

Thanks for reading!:) Reviews are very welcome.

To PGMD: Thanks for the review:D I believe you are even more sadistic than I am.

To Elyon: Thanks for the review:D Your reviews really make me happy :3

To jv: Thanks for the review:D Your are right, I forgot all about Limbo xD

To loove it!!: Thanks for the review:D Yeah, he's going to suffer. The others are going to have fun though.:)


	29. Solution Chapter III

The DVD of the Truth: Continued

On Wednesday night, which the regulars spent together in the living room watching Star Wars, Oishi sent his monkey to steal Tezuka's feather pen, attracting Archimedes the Second to hop onto the roof of the building. While the regulars were running about on the roof trying to get the distraught chicken down, the monkey had sneaked into the house and poisoned Inui's juice.

The poison worked excellently. Inui was found dead the next day.

"Care to explain why everyone else's deaths got at least a full paragraph of description, yet mine only got one sentence? That was sooo unfair," Inui pouted, becoming more and more out of character as the time wore on.

It was unfair, but it wasn't like anybody cared anyway.

--

On Thursday night, Eiji's conscience had been bothering him too much for him to bear it anymore. When Eiji was trying to talk Oishi into turning themselves in for the fifteenth time of the week, Oishi suggested a way that Eiji could avoid killing anybody and stay temporarily out of suspicion as well.

Fake death.

"To make your 'death' fit the rhyme, you should pretend that you have seen something weird in the disco room. On the way there, put this powder into your Coke. You'll fall asleep right away, and you won't need to worry about anything else. I'll act as if you're dead, and without Inui no one will suspect that you are still alive. Afterwards, stay inside the room out of sight. I'll bring you food at night. Understood?"

Eiji nodded. The wholly trusting expression on Eiji's face made Oishi shudder inside.

Of course, by 'the room' Oishi did not mean Eiji's own. Hiding in there would have been too dangerous and too easily to be spotted or heard. What he meant was Atobe's forbidden room. Or, to be exact, the secret room _in_ Atobe's forbidden room. Indeed, there was another voice-activated door in there. It was hidden under the bed, leading to a tiny underground cell-like space. To open the door, all Oishi had to do was touch the purple vase standing on the carpet and say "Gekokujou." To make sure that he didn't forget the password, Oishi had scribbled it on the last page of Hiyoshi Wakashi's Secret Diary, which he had conveniently found in a desk drawer. Even if someone did find the notebook, he thought, the word was unlikely to stand out.

Having come to a conclusion that he could escape the killing by playing dead, Eiji happily obliged to the plan, pouring his heart and soul into his role.

It was the last time in his life that he ever played a role.

According to Oishi's research, the powder he had given to Eiji was supposed to kill him then and there. Oishi had not expected that it would take so long to finish someone completely. He had been fully prepared to play his part of a depraved friend and partner, but when it really happened, he did not really need to act.

Watching Eiji die was so terrible. Oishi was genuinely shocked, genuinely scared, and genuinely heartbroken.

After all, even though before Eiji died he had sufficient time to tell everyone the truth and accuse Oishi of being a ruthless murderer, he did not do so.

Since he carried out his plan, it was the first time that Oishi felt regretful.

--

During Friday night, Oishi killed the chicken, mostly due to the fact that he didn't know what to do with it and it was such a nuisance to have around.

Before daybreak on Saturday, deciding that the others, having checked Inui once already on Friday, would not have any reason to check his body again, Oishi carefully sawed off one of Inui's arms. Since most of Inui's body was covered with a blanket, it was not apparent that an arm was missing, so it would be all right if someone ventured into this room afterwards. He made a streak on Inui's arm, so it could pass for his own, which he had—not really accidentally—hurt on the beach. After burying the arm, placing the funnels in position and ordering his monkey to lock up his room simply to make things more confusing, Oishi concealed himself in the secret cell in Atobe's forbidden room to wait for the other three to discover 'his' arm.

Everything went smoothly according to plan. On Sunday, Oishi used a single can of tinned sardines as a bait to lure Karupin out of the house. Just as Oishi had thought, Ryoma was soon tired of watching his senpai cooking happily together, and upon discovering that his cat was missing headed out to look for him. It was a piece of cake for Oishi to behead the small Prince of Tennis. Karupin, being selfish as cats usually were, did not care much and went on mewing, pleading Oishi to open the tinned can for him. Oishi thought that it was very heartless of the cat, though come to think of it, what he himself was doing was really no less heartless either.

After doing so, Oishi went off to play dead himself. With him dead, the remaining two would have to suspect one another. By pitting them against each other, Oishi could save the trouble of murdering one of them, and it was easier to deal with only one person.

As soon as Oishi stuck all the signs in their proper places, he headed under the cliff to the spot where he had hidden his monkey for the past few days. Using red paint he quickly built a believable death scene, making it seem like he had been shoved off the cliff to his death. After all, Fuji and Kawamura would not be able to come close enough to touch him and see that he was not actually dead.

There was another reason for choosing that spot under the cliff beside the bamboo forest to fake his death. If Oishi had to choose whether to deal with Kawamura or Fuji, he would definitely not pick dangerous Fuji. It would be much better if Kawamura finished Fuji off for him, but the more Oishi thought about it, the less he believed that Kawamura would ever harm Fuji in any way. Therefore, he chose a location where it would be easier for Kawamura to reach something that would make him start burning and conveniently lose his sanity. It went as he had predicted —Kawamura did start burning, and successfully killed Fuji in burning mode. Even better, Kawamura was so depressed after killing Fuji that he actually went and drank the poisoned water himself, saving Oishi the trouble of murdering him with his own hands. Everything was lovely, going according to plan at a beautiful rate. All the eight others were dead, and Oishi did not feel worried anymore. He knew that they would behave better dead.

What did not go according to plan was that when Oishi was rejoicing, his monkey, which he named Omelet Rice, came behind him with a knife. Omelet Rice hated being named Omelet Rice with all her might, feeling that the degrading name had taken away all her monkey dignity. Therefore, she had been planning a murder as well—a murder to get rid of her master with an egg-shaped head and no naming sense.

That was how Oishi died and met the others in Hell.

Another thing that was not within his calculations was that Fuji had been suspecting Oishi for quite some time. Fuji, a genius as well as Eiji's good friend, had known that something was wrong since Kaidoh's death. He also noticed that the arm buried under the six funnels could not have been Oishi's. The hand had an index finger that was longer than its ring finger, but Fuji remembered that Oishi had a longer ring finger. However, he had kept silent because, like he said, he thought it would be nice to meet everyone at Hell.

Therefore, Fuji was dead even though he could have easily prevented his own death, and met Kawamura at the elevator to Hell.

"So you're dead too? Guess he won in the end."

Kawamura looked confusedly at Fuji. Fuji smiled. Kawamura felt like he didn't understand what was going on at all, yet somehow at the same time he understood everything.

"Um…"

"Here's the elevator. Let's go down together."

They stepped into the elevator together. Even though they did not know where the place it would bring them to would be like, it was all right, because they were together.

They would finally all be together.

--

While we were busily watching the DVD of the Truth, the Seigaku regulars in Hell had already caught their culprit by means of Ryoma's Mercedes-Benz. They were a very efficient group of people.

"But Oishi, _why_?" Kawamura asked in confusion.

"You see, you guys were always doing stupid things and making me worry. To keep you out of danger, I decided to kill you all so you won't do dangerous things anymore," Oishi confessed, holding his stomach.

"Ah, so it was because of such a touching motive. I won't blame you then—" Fuji looked moved as well, "—as if I really will! You sick bastard, I'm going to take off your pants right away."

Oishi gulped visibly. He had nowhere to run, for Tezuka had a strong grip on his shoulders.

"Yeah, Fuji-senpai, I want to kick his ass too," Momo joined in, hotheaded and eager as usual. "Viper, be my witness. If I don't kick Oishi-senpai's ass today, I will change my last name to—"

"No way! Why should I be just your witness? _I _want to kick his ass too," Kaidoh declared, agreeing with Momo for once in his life—no, afterlife.

"Wait," Oishi stammered, "Kaidoh, it's not _my_ fault that you're dead."

"Harming my team members is wrong," Tezuka ignored Oishi's protest and ordered calmly. "200 laps around Hell."

"But then we won't get to kick his ass," Momo cried.

"Kikumaru, you are not excused either. 200 laps around Hell too," Tezuka went on sternly.

"It's not really Eiji's fault," Oishi, conscience-stricken, quickly stood up for his partner in crime. "I made him do it. Don't punish him."

"I understand," Tezuka sighed, "but murder should not be forgiven. Anyway, what's so terrible about him going around Hell 200 times by subway anyway? It has air-conditioning."

"Thanks, buchou. See you guys later," Eiji happily stepped on the air-conditioned vehicle and was soon out of sight.

Oishi, lamenting that he had no comfortable high-speed transportation, sadly went to run his 200 laps, because Tezuka must be obeyed.

The rest of the Seigaku regulars stood in a circle, looking at each other with sudden anticipation.

"Our goal is to go to the Hell nationals," Tezuka announced, expressionless as usual. "Inui, which team are we playing against tomorrow?"

"According to my data, we are playing Gentei Gakuen, the emperor of fire," Inui replied, lifting his glasses. "They are very strong."

"I see. We must not let our guard down then. Training begins now," Tezuka nodded. "100 laps around Hell, everyone. Yudan sezu ni ikou!"

**The End.**

"Kaidoh, why aren't you running your laps?"

"Bu…buchou, I'm already back."

It's so wonderful to be able to teleport.

**The End. For real.**

* * *

Yup. This is the end. I hope it's not too horribly disappointing. I have no idea why, but when the solution was in Chinese in was perfectly credible, and yet somehow when I translated it into English it seemed to be full of bugs. There are so many bugs that I can't begin to count them. In Chinese, due to wordplay, I was able to conceal them all but I'm not so skilled in English and English really is a more precise language. (sobs) :(

Thanks so much for reading:3 Reviews are very welcome:)

To saya: Thanks for the review :D

To lawli-chan: Thanks for the review :D Sorry about not letting Fuji kill anyone… but he's Fuji after all, so he'll probably get another chance to do so. As for Atobe, he mistook wine for strawberry juice and drank too much, poor guy…

To kalista: Thanks for the reviews :D As you can see, I like writing about pets xD

To loove it!!: Thanks for the review:D Actually I like Oishi a lot too… it's just that he's always the victim so I assume that he must be very tired of it and need a change. XD

To Elyon: Thanks for the review :D Your reviews always make me so happy:)

To Yukari: Yes! Summer holiday! FINALLY! Thanks for reviewing:) I'm intending to translate something else, though it might be in an entirely different genre:)

--

Thanks again for reading:) And I want to say thank you to everyone who reviewed so far, your reviews really make my day.

Thanks a lot to my friend who plotted all the deaths and weird red herrings with me. I will never forget how fun it was sitting in a café and deciding the dying order and various killing ways and putting them down on paper. Unfortunately I cannot put her name up here because I DON'T EVEN KNOW HER ENGLISH NAME. And I call myself her friend… (sobs)

Last but not least, a thank-you to my awesome beta, **mysticLegend11**. You are just amazing. I won't know what to do without you :D


End file.
